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James Grover Thurber by Carly Jenise Lingerfelt

Born on December 8, 1894, James Grover Thurber was destined to be a great American author. In his early works, he used his lighthearted humor and flair to compose friendly and exciting literature. However it is noted that in his later works, Thurber grew pessimistic and cold. This was a feature his colleagues had not yet witnessed. His works reflect his natural talent for social satire and fantasy. He used his own anecdotes to create pieces of artwork. When Thurber was six years old, he and his older brother were playing Cowboys and Indians outside. Thurber's older brother shot him in the eye with an arrow, destroying his left eye. When his parents failed to administer proper treatment of the eye, sympathetic ophthalmia spread into his right eye. His sight was eventually restored with age, however, by 1941, he was considered legally blind. Thurber was able to write "The Whip-Poor Will", reflecting on the tragedy and fear he experienced in his first years of blindness. Thurber was able to write his most famous works due to this handicap. Although considered a humorist, Thurber often rejected the term. He believed that the word was ugly and loosely-constructed, and also that it undermines the depth and drama the author is trying to portray. For instance, his most popular work, "The Secret Life of Walter Mitty" portrays a middle-aged man discontent with his job and marriage. This reflected Thurber's own unhappiness in his marriage, and appealed to an audience treking through the same dilemmas. After writing for years airy short stories, Thurber decided to take a risk and transition into children's books. In these writings, he told of unimaginable situations with amazing wizardry and heroes in every book. Each of his writings were fairy tales with Thurber's own modern perspective. Critics compared Thurber to Frank Stockton, one of the most noted children's author of their generation. James Thurber received a natural gift of writing fairy tales, tales that inspire and short stories that children desire more of. Following his success in fairy tale writing, Thurber embarked upon a venture so controversial. In the years during the Red Scare of the post World War II period, Thurber decided to write a tale reflecting the chaotic nature of the Scare. He wrote of McCarthy and his ridiculous policies, portraying him as a pirate who hates the letter "O". He uses content that young children could not understand, but better yet, content that adults could not ignore. Thurber's last major work was //A Thurber Carnival//. It consisted of Thurber's earlier works and newer works incorporated into older ones. The stories were composed into a Broadway production and enjoyed nationwide attention. When ticket sales began to decrease, Thurber took it upon himself to act in the plays himself. Due to this, ticket sales rose dramatically, and Thurber performed with the crew for 88 productions. The work acclaimed national attention yet again and became so popular that in 1960, A Thurber Carnival received a Tony Award. On October 3, 1961, Thurber suffered a stroke in his home in New York City. He was taken to the hospital where he contracted pneumonia and passed away almost one month later on November 2, 1961. Although nationally credited for his humorist works, critics can agree that the last decade of Thurber's life became growingly pessimistic. Of course, Thurber never claimed it himself, but friends and fellow authors noticed a "hint" of pessimism. Many critics connect his darker writings with his darker life in his later years. As he became legally blind in the early '40's, Thurber grew more and more hostile toward his outlook on life. In the short days before his death, Elliott Nugent remembers Thurber saying, "I can't hide anymore behind the mask of comedy.... People are not funny; they are vicious and horrible—and so is life!" His failed marriage, failed eyesight and failure to impress his good friend E.B. White with his favorite piece, Thurber came to find life as merely an existance. It is simple to see Thurber's works in two ways. One could portray Thurber as a humorist; a humorist defending the individual in an age of mass culture. However, a darker view of Thurber could empathize with his dark character, as a way to come to terms with fear and resentment and his unstable psyche. Richard C. Tobias can define Thurber's writing career into three phases. The first is following the Crash of '29. This is when Thurber is a man troubled by his own society. He wants to appeal to a menacing audience and improve the world around him. The second is in the 1940s. This is an age of innovation and exploration. During this time, Thurber attempts writing children's literature, and had his most famous and acclaimed writings published. The last phase is in the 1950s, when Thurber reflects on his earlier works and discovers the deeper meanings behind them. He uses new ideas against old ideas to create a piece of literature to be read world wide. James Grover Thurber has been compared to J.D. Salinger, Ernest Hemingway and Robert Frost, allowing Thurber's name to forever live in literature. Even in recent years, the Washington Post World Book refers to Thurber as having "a timeless quality that should guarantee him a readership far into the future."

"James Grover Thurber." __DISCovering Biography__ Online ed. Detroit: Gale, 2003. Student Resource Center 
 * Annotated Bibliography**

"James Grover Thurber" from DISCovering Bibliography allows readers to receive an in-depth look into the life of James Thurber. It includes traumatic events of Thurber's childhood, such as his blindness, and explores the troubled marriage between Thurber and his first wife. The biography explains how and why Thurber published what he did, and explains how Thurber contradicted himself throughout his own life. The reader will be able to understand the humorism reflected in Thurber's earlier works and the dark, pessimistic works of his later years. I used much of the essay in interpreting Thurber's lifestyle to compose my entry. I believe this source is excellent for both biographical and literary information, as it incorporates Thurber's real life drama and how the author composed his works from this drama.

Trachtenberg, Stanley. "James Thurber." __Dictionary of Literary Biography__, Volume 11. Pomona: Beacham Group, LLC, 05 May 2005

__The Dictionary of Literary Biography__ is from the Beacham Group in Pomona. Volume 11 includes authors in alphabetical order from "S" to "U", including James Thurber. This entry on James Grover Thurber is very detailed in terms of the author's lifestyle and biographical information. The editors at Beacham Group, however, have not extensively explained the literary criticism of Thurber's fellow colleagues or authors. The source tells of Thurber's accident and goes into great detail about the effect this incident had on Thurber's writings. However, in terms of what critics believed about the author and how historians perceive Thurber is still unknown to me. I used much of the information on my author trading card, as it had statistical information. However, I was unable to use much of this source to compose this entry.