REVIEW POTPOURRI – Authur: James Thurber

James Thurber

by Peter Cates

James Thurber

James Thurber (1894-1961) achieved a much deserved hilarious notoriety for his writings and cartoons via the New Yorker. With respect to his cartoons, Maine’s own E.B. White, while still working at the magazine’s Manhattan office as an assistant editor, found some of Thurber’s sketches in the wastebasket and published them, later commenting that they could stand on their own as artistic expressions.

One notable book, Thurber’s Dogs, collected his writings and drawings celebrating those real and imaginary canines; a paragraph conveys the precisely honed wit and clarity that Thurber achieved so often:

“My inherent fairness and open mind led me to admit that some dogs have been known to let people down, or stand them up, or exasperate and even distress them by unpredictable behavior. I even went so far as to confess that some of my own dogs had double-crossed me for a total, as I put it then, of sixteen or eighteen times, but I quickly added that the basic fault was, in almost every instance, my own.”

Two other highly recommended books are My Life and Hard Times, recounting his childhood growing up in Columbus, Ohio; and The Years With Ross, documenting the years of working with the legendary founder and editor of the New Yorker, Harold Ross (1892-1951).

A frequently anthologized sketch from My Life is The Night the Bed Fell which can be read on Google.

In the Years With Ross, Thurber comments on the huge thick mane of hair on Ross’s head which made my woman comment that she wanted to take off her shoes and walk barefoot through it.

When Thurber was seven, he and a brother were playing William Tell. His brother’s arrow missed the apple and took out one of Thurber’s eyes. The resulting neurological damage is believed to have caused increasing blindness during Thurber’s later years.

Thurber also wrote that his mother was one of the greatest comedians he ever witnessed. She once pretended to be paralyzed at a revival service and then jumped up screaming, “I’m healed.”