Quick Facts
James Grover Thurber
Born: 1894
Died: 1961
Nationality: American
Genres: Humor, Satire
Notable Works: The Secret Life of Walter Mitty, My Life and Hard Times, The Thurber Carnival, The Male Animal, The 13 Clocks
James Thurber: Early Life in Columbus
James Grover Thurber was born on December 8, 1894, in Columbus, Ohio, the second of three sons of Charles Leander Thurber, a minor political clerk, and Mary Agnes (Mame) Fisher Thurber, a strong-willed woman whose flair for practical jokes and theatrical pranks would profoundly shape her son's comic sensibility. Columbus—with its ordinary midwestern routines, eccentric neighbors, and domestic upheavals—became the inexhaustible wellspring of Thurber's finest humor.
When Thurber was six years old, his brother William shot him in the left eye with a toy arrow during a game of William Tell. The injury, improperly treated, eventually led to sympathetic ophthalmia in his remaining eye—a slow, irreversible deterioration that would define the arc of his creative life. The accident barred him from sports and drove him inward, toward reading, drawing, and the elaborate interior worlds that became his literary trademark.
Education and Early Career
Thurber attended Ohio State University beginning in 1913 but struggled academically, partly because of his poor eyesight and partly because of a temperamental resistance to regimentation. He never completed his degree during his initial enrollment, though the university would later award him an honorary doctorate. At Ohio State he met Elliott Nugent, who became a lifelong friend and later his collaborator on the Broadway comedy The Male Animal (1940).
After leaving Ohio State, Thurber worked as a code clerk for the State Department in Washington and Paris during World War I, then returned to Columbus to become a reporter for the Columbus Dispatch. He later wrote for the Chicago Tribune's Paris edition, sharpening the lean, deceptively casual prose style that would become his hallmark. In 1926 he moved to New York, freelancing without much success until a chance encounter changed everything.
The New Yorker Years
In 1927, Thurber met E. B. White at a party, and White introduced him to Harold Ross, the founding editor of The New Yorker. Ross hired Thurber as managing editor—a role spectacularly ill-suited to his temperament—but White soon helped him transition to staff writer. The partnership with White produced Is Sex Necessary? (1929), a parody of the era's pop-psychology manuals that established Thurber's reputation as a humorist of the first rank.
Over the next three decades, Thurber's writing and cartoons became virtually synonymous with The New Yorker. His simple, wobbly line drawings—of bewildered men, formidable women, and dogs of sublime contentment—achieved the status of modern American icons. His prose ranged from the autobiographical comedy of My Life and Hard Times (1933) to the fantasy of his celebrated fables, but his masterpiece of short fiction was The Secret Life of Walter Mitty (1939), the story of a meek husband whose heroic daydreams have become a permanent part of the English language.
Major Works and Legacy
Thurber's other celebrated works include the stories "The Catbird Seat," "The Night the Bed Fell," and "The Dog That Bit People"; the Broadway play The Male Animal (1940), written with Nugent; and The Thurber Carnival (1945), a career-spanning anthology that became a bestseller and later a Broadway revue. His children's book The 13 Clocks (1950) is considered a minor classic of fantasy literature.
By the late 1940s, progressive blindness forced Thurber to abandon drawing entirely, and he dictated his later writings. His humor grew darker and more biting in his final decade, though flashes of the old brilliance still appeared. He received a Tony Award in 1960 for A Thurber Carnival.
James Thurber died on November 2, 1961, in New York City, following complications from a brain tumor. He was sixty-six. His name endures not only in the dozens of stories and hundreds of drawings he left behind, but in the word "Mittyesque"—and in the simple fact that "a Walter Mitty" has entered the dictionary as a term for anyone who escapes a humdrum existence through extravagant daydreams.
Frequently Asked Questions about James Thurber
Who is James Thurber?
James Thurber (1894–1961) was an American humorist, cartoonist, and author best known for his contributions to The New Yorker magazine. His witty short stories, essays, and deceptively simple line drawings made him one of the most celebrated comic writers of the twentieth century. His most famous work, The Secret Life of Walter Mitty, became so iconic that "Walter Mitty" entered the English language as a term for a habitual daydreamer.
What is "The Secret Life of Walter Mitty" about?
The Secret Life of Walter Mitty (1939) tells the story of a mild-mannered, henpecked husband who escapes the tedium of running errands with his domineering wife by retreating into a series of vivid, heroic daydreams. In his fantasies he is alternately a fearless Navy commander, a brilliant surgeon, a crack marksman, and a bomber pilot facing certain death—each fantasy triggered and then interrupted by the mundane realities of buying overshoes, driving through town, and waiting in a hotel lobby.
What was James Thurber's connection to The New Yorker?
Thurber joined The New Yorker in 1927 after being introduced to editor Harold Ross by his friend and colleague E. B. White. Initially hired as managing editor—a role he was famously unsuited for—Thurber soon transitioned to staff writer and cartoonist. His writing and drawings became virtually synonymous with the magazine over the next three decades. He published hundreds of stories, essays, and cartoons in its pages, helping to define the magazine's distinctive blend of wit, urbanity, and literary sophistication.
What are James Thurber's most famous cartoons?
Thurber's cartoons are characterized by their deceptively simple, wobbly line drawings—sketches that look almost childlike but carry enormous comic force. His most iconic subjects are bewildered, put-upon men; large, commanding women; and blissfully contented dogs. Many of his cartoons appeared in The New Yorker and were collected in books such as The Seal in the Bedroom (1932) and Men, Women and Dogs (1943). E. B. White famously championed Thurber's drawings, recognizing their artistic merit when others dismissed them as mere doodles.
Was James Thurber blind?
Thurber lost his left eye at age six when his brother accidentally shot him with a toy arrow during a game of William Tell. The injury was improperly treated, and over the following decades sympathetic ophthalmia gradually destroyed the vision in his remaining eye as well. By the late 1940s he was effectively blind and could no longer draw. He continued writing by dictating his work, and his prose output remained substantial—though his humor grew noticeably darker in his final years. His progressive blindness is one of the most poignant aspects of his biography, given how central both writing and drawing were to his creative identity.
What are James Thurber's other famous works?
Beyond The Secret Life of Walter Mitty, Thurber's notable works include the memoir My Life and Hard Times (1933), widely considered the finest American humor book since Mark Twain; the stories "The Catbird Seat," "The Night the Bed Fell," and "The Dog That Bit People"; the Broadway play The Male Animal (1940), co-written with Elliott Nugent; and The Thurber Carnival (1945), a career anthology. His children's book The 13 Clocks (1950) is regarded as a minor classic of fantasy literature.
What is James Thurber's connection to Columbus, Ohio?
Thurber was born and raised in Columbus, Ohio, and the city—with its ordinary midwestern rhythms, eccentric neighbors, and domestic comedies—provided the raw material for much of his best writing. My Life and Hard Times draws almost entirely on his Columbus childhood and family, immortalizing episodes like the night the bed fell and the day the dam supposedly broke. Ohio State University, where Thurber was an indifferent student, also figures prominently in his work. Columbus has honored him with the Thurber House, his restored boyhood home, which now serves as a literary center and museum.
What is James Thurber's humor style?
Thurber's humor is built on the gap between the heroic inner life and the deflating realities of the everyday world—particularly the domestic world of marriage, errands, and social obligation. His men are bewildered, ineffectual dreamers; his women are brisk, commanding, and frequently terrifying. His prose style is deceptively simple, with a conversational ease that masks careful craftsmanship. He blends autobiography, fantasy, and social satire, often within a single piece, and his best work achieves a tone that is simultaneously hilarious and melancholy. Dorothy Parker once called him "the greatest American humorist since Mark Twain."