The secret to the enduring popularity of what is perhaps James Thurber’s most famous short story, “The Secret Life of Walter Mitty"—published first in The New Yorker on March 18, 1939 and then reprinted in Thurber's 1942 collection, My World - and Welcome to It—lies in a certain universality. No matter how famous, rich, and successful one becomes, each and every human carries around with them a secret fantasy life. Everybody experiences those moments throughout the day when a word, sound, scent, or memory stimulates a brief escape from reality into that realm of the imagination within which all things are possible.
Thurber's story follows Walter Mitty, a married man on a day trip to...
