One of the most beloved American humorous and satirical writers since Mark Twain, James Thurber made his name with what modernist doyen T. S. Eliot called "a form of humor which is also a way of saying something serious," a talent he also demonstrated as a cartoonist for The New Yorker and as a playwright.
Born on December 8, 1894 in Columbus, Ohio to a clerk father and a mother whom he would describe as a "born comedian," Thurber's early life was defined by his loss of an eye and partial blinding at age seven due to an ill-conceived game of William Tell with his brother. Many of Thurber's critics see this limitation of his vision, which worsened progressively over the course of his...
