Meet the Author
James Thurber
American · 1894–1961 · Humorist, short-story writer & cartoonist
The gentle satirist of daydreamers and domestic warfare, and the man who gave us Walter Mitty.
4 StoryBites Editions2 Short stories
Why read James Thurber?
Thurber found comedy in the small humiliations of modern life — henpecked husbands, baffling machines, and the rich fantasy lives people escape into. His humor is deceptively light, shading into melancholy about loneliness and the gap between who we are and who we imagine ourselves to be. Read him for wit that has aged remarkably well and one of literature's most famous escapists.
A life in six dates
- 1894Born in Columbus, Ohio
- 1927Joins the staff of The New Yorker
- 1939'The Secret Life of Walter Mitty' published
- 1945'The Thurber Carnival' collection appears
- 1961Dies in New York City
Themes across the collection
The StoryBites Editions
Context that actually matters
The New Yorker school of humorThurber helped define the magazine's dry, urbane comic voice and its blend of cartoon and prose.
Fantasy as escapeHis characters retreat into elaborate daydreams, a theme that gave 'Walter Mitty' to the language.
Influence
Echoes of James Thurber run through Woody Allen, Garrison Keillor, among many others.