Introduction Several weeks ago I began running the first episodes of “James Thurber, A Reader’s Guide,” a rambling consideration of Thurber’s works, examining his life and work in some detail. The links to the first two parts are given below. Part 3 continues my discussion of Thurber’s early life. Part 1 Part 2 Part 3…
Tag: James Thurber
James Thurber, A Reader’s Guide, Part 2
Introduction Last week I ran the first part of “James Thurber, A Reader’s Guide,” the first in a series of about, well, thirty-five. If you want to go back and read it, it’s here. The first part ended with me rambling on about how I liked Thurber much more than another *New Yorker* author, Wolcott…
James Thurber, a reader’s guide
Introduction Some months ago, I thought I would write a longish piece on James Thurber—maybe five or ten thousand words at the most. Well, that was then. I’ve got about thirty-five thousand and counting, including footnotes. I’m going to start running this thing in thousand-word chunks, starting with this one. I’ve been learning about footnotes…
Mitty Novus
I have been laboring through an increasingly extensive survey of the works of James Thurber. A few “spin-offs” have already appeared, here and here. Today’s shtick is a bit longer. From my researches, I’ve learned that Thurber originally intended to include in his most famous story, “The Secret Life of Walter Mitty,” an episode that…
Ross/Fowler Myth Exposed!
OK, normal people can stop reading this post right now. If you do not know who Harold Ross and H.K. Fowler were, you are a normal person and should go to Facebook or You-Tube or whatever it is that you kids do now besides drugs and sex. OK, with that out of the way. let’s…
Wolcott Gibbs
Wolcott Gibbs is practically unknown today, except to that small and no doubt dwindling band who know a great deal about the early days of the New Yorker. Founder/editor Harold Ross once told James Thurber “There wasn’t anything the three of you [Gibbs, Thurber, and E.B. White] couldn’t do. You could have got the magazine…