Background
Thurber was born in 1894 in Columbus, Ohio, United States, to Charles L. Thurber and Mary Agnes "Mame" (née Fisher) Thurber.
( Widely hailed as one of the finest humorist of the twe...)
Widely hailed as one of the finest humorist of the twentieth century, James Thurber looks back at his own life growing up in Columbus, Ohio, with the same humor and sharp wit that defined his famous sketches and writings. In My Life and Hard times, first published in 1933, he recounts the delightful chaos and frustrations of family, boyhood, youth odd dogs, recalcitrant machinery, and the foibles of human nature.
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(A giant of American humor makes his Penguin Classics debu...)
A giant of American humor makes his Penguin Classics debut with probably the best book in the world (Neil Gaiman, from the Introduction), in a stunning Deluxe Edition featuring the original, full-color illustrations The hands of all thirteen clocks stand still in the gloomy castle on a lonely hill where a wicked Duke lives with his niece, the beautiful Princess Saralinda. The Duke fancies he has frozen time, for he is afraid that one day a Prince may come and win away the hand of the Princessthe only warm hand in the castle. To thwart that fate, he sets impossible tasks for Saralindas suitors. But when the bold Prince Zorn of Zorna arrives, disguised as a wandering minstrel, and helped by the enigmatic Golux, the cold Duke may at last have met his match. Since it was first published in 1950, James Thurbers sublimely whimsical fairy tale of love forestalled but ultimately fulfilled has delighted readers of all ages. It is published here with Marc Simonts enchanting, full-color illustrations from the first edition. For more than seventy years, Penguin has been the leading publisher of classic literature in the English-speaking world. With more than 1,700 titles, Penguin Classics represents a global bookshelf of the best works throughout history and across genres and disciplines. Readers trust the series to provide authoritative texts enhanced by introductions and notes by distinguished scholars and contemporary authors, as well as up-to-date translations by award-winning translators.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0143110144/?tag=2022091-20
Thurber was born in 1894 in Columbus, Ohio, United States, to Charles L. Thurber and Mary Agnes "Mame" (née Fisher) Thurber.
James Thurber attended Ohio State University - though he never took a degree.
He worked for some years in Ohio as a journalist. He moved to New York in 1926. In 1927 he met writer E. B. White and was taken onto the staff of the New Yorker magazine. In collaboration with White he produced his first book, Is Sex Necessary? (1929).
By 1931 his first cartoons began appearing in the New Yorker seals, sea lions, strange tigers, harried men, determined women, and, most of all, dogs. Thurber's dogs became something like a national comic institution, and they dotted the pages of a whole series of books.
His book The Seal in the Bedroom appeared in 1932, followed in 1933 by My Life and Hard Times. He published The Middle-aged Man on the Flying Trapeze in 1935, and by 1937, when he published Let Your Mind Alone! , he had become so successful that he left his position on the New Yorker staff to free-lance and to travel abroad.
The Last Flower appeared in 1939; that year Thurber collaborated with White on a play, The Male Animal. The play was a hit when it opened in 1940. But this was also the year that Thurber was forced to undergo a series of eye operations for cataract and trachoma.
The last 20 years of Thurber's life were filled with material and professional success in spite of his handicap. He published at least 14 more books, including The Thurber Carnival (1945), Thurber Country (1953), and the extremely popular account of the life of the New Yorker editer Harold Ross, The Years with Ross (1959). A number of his stories were made into movies, including "The Secret Life of Walter Mitty" (1947). Thurber's comic world was peopled by his curious animals.
(A giant of American humor makes his Penguin Classics debu...)
( Widely hailed as one of the finest humorist of the twe...)
His eyesight grew steadily worse until, in 1951, it was so weak that he did his last drawing. He spent the last decade of his life in blindness.
Thurber married Althea Adams in 1922, but the marriage was troubled and ended in divorce in May 1935. They lived in Fairfield County, Connecticut, with their daughter Rosemary. He married Helen Wismer (1902–86) in June 1935.