Muck-Raking Maximaphily

An interesting bit of literary-artistic-philatelic trivia from Roy Arenella, who sends me a thick postcard showing a James Thurber self-portrait and an image of a postage stamp using a straightened-up version of that self-portrait.

Arenellanism # 299 X (the X meaning “Xerox”) includes a postage stamp with a photograph of writer William Saroyan (father of writer Aram Saroyan, who himself is father of writer Strawberry Saroyan) and this note (abridged):

Who noticed when the writer-drawer James Thurber was honored with a stamp? That time the gov’t altered the original Thurber line-drawing self-portrait by propping-up the downsloped Thurber & adding a stiff spine-line to keep him properly posed. On stamps we want our writers to be upstanding!

Roy Arenella, "Thurber as He Drew Himself" (10 Sep 1994)
un violon d’ingres