James Thurber was an American humorist, cartoonist, writer, and playwright whose sharp wit and whimsical drawings made him one of the most celebrated literary figures of the mid-twentieth century. Born in Columbus, Ohio, in 1894, Thurber attended Ohio State University before working as a code clerk for the U.S. State Department in Paris. Upon returning to Ohio, he worked as a reporter for the Columbus Dispatch before relocating to New York, where he joined the staff of The New Yorker in 1927. His association with the magazine would define his career and help shape its signature sophisticated, humorous tone.
Thurber's literary breakthrough came in 1929 with Is Sex Necessary?, a parody of contemporary psychological texts co-authored with E. B. White. The book featured Thurber's minimalist, expressive doodles, which prompted The New Yorker to begin publishing his cartoons regularly. Throughout the 1930s, he published numerous books of prose and illustrations, including My Life and Hard Times (1933), a fictionalized memoir of his eccentric childhood in Columbus that is widely regarded as his masterpiece. He also ventured into theater, co-writing the hit Broadway play The Male Animal (1940) with Elliott Nugent.
Despite losing his eyesight almost completely by the mid-1940s—the result of a childhood injury compounded by later complications—Thurber remained a prolific writer. He adapted to dictating his work, producing highly successful collections such as The Thurber Carnival (1945) and the politically charged Further Fables for Our Time (1956), which satirized the McCarthyism of the era. Thurber continued to write and even perform, starring as himself in a stage adaptation of his work in 1959, before his death in New York City in 1961.
