James Thurber

James Grover Thurber (December 8, 1894 – November 2, 1961) was an American cartoonist, writer, humorist, journalist, and playwright. He was best known for his cartoons and short stories, published mainly in The New Yorker and collected in his numerous books. Thurber was one of the most popular humorists of his time and celebrated ordinary people's comic frustrations and eccentricities. 

His works have frequently been adapted into films, including The Male Animal (1942), The Battle of the Sexes (1959, based on Thurber's "The Catbird Seat"), and The Secret Life of Walter Mitty (adapted twice, in 1947 and in 2013). Thurber was born in Columbus, Ohio, to Charles L. Thurber and Mary Agnes "Mame" (née Fisher) Thurber on December 8, 1894. Both of his parents greatly influenced his work. His father was a sporadically employed clerk and minor politician who dreamed of being a lawyer or an actor. 

Thurber described his mother as a "born comedian" and "one of the finest comic talents I think I have ever known." She was a practical joker and, on one occasion, pretended to be disabled and attended a faith healer revival, only to jump up and proclaim herself healed. When Thurber was seven years old, he and one of his brothers were playing a game of William Tell when his brother shot James in the eye with an arrow. He lost that eye, and the injury later caused him to become almost entirely blind. 

He was unable to participate in sports and other activities in his childhood because of this injury. Still, he developed a creative mind, which he used to express himself in his writings. Neurologist V. S. Ramachandran suggests that Charles Bonnet syndrome may partly explain Thurber's imagination. This neurological condition causes complex visual hallucinations in people who have had some level of visual loss. (This was the basis for the piece "The Admiral on the Wheel.")

From 1913 to 1918, Thurber attended Ohio State University, where he was a member of the Phi Kappa Psi fraternity and editor of the student magazine Sundial. It was during this time he rented the house on 77 Jefferson Avenue, which became Thurber House in 1984. He never graduated from the university because his poor eyesight prevented him from taking a mandatory Reserve Officers' Training Corps (ROTC) course. In 1995 he was posthumously awarded a degree.

From 1918 to 1920, Thurber worked as a code clerk for the United States Department of State, first in Washington, D.C., and then at the embassy in Paris. On returning to Columbus, he began his career as a reporter for The Columbus Dispatch from 1921 to 1924. During this time, he reviewed books, films, and plays in a weekly column called "Credos and Curios," a title that was given to a posthumous collection of his work. Thurber returned to Paris during this period, where he wrote for the Chicago Tribune and other newspapers.

In 1925, Thurber moved to Greenwich Village in New York City, obtaining a job as a reporter with the New York Evening Post. He joined the staff of The New Yorker in 1927 as an editor, with the help of E. B. White, his friend, and fellow New Yorker contributor. His career as a cartoonist began in 1930 after White found some of Thurber's drawings in a trash can and submitted them for publication; White inked in some of these earlier drawings to make them reproduce better for the magazine, and years later expressed deep regret he had done such a thing. Thurber contributed his writings and drawings to The New Yorker until the 1950s.