James Thurber

James Thurber

Columbus-born humorist and New Yorker cartoonist whose comic memoir My Life and Hard Times (1933) turned his Columbus family into American folklore.

Born December 8, 1894, Columbus
Died November 2, 1961, Manhattan, New York City

Public domain · Wikimedia Commons

At a glance

Born: December 8, 1894, Columbus (Franklin County) source
Died: November 2, 1961, Manhattan, New York City source
Buried: Green Lawn Cemetery, Columbus (Franklin County) source
Also known as: James Thurber
Education: East High School, Columbus, OH, 1909-
: Ohio State University, Columbus, OH, 1913-1918, posthumous degree 1995
Known as: Writer
Organizations: The New Yorker

Life story

James Thurber was born in Columbus in 1894. As a boy he lost an eye in an arrow accident, which later left his sight fragile.

He went to East High School and Ohio State but left without a degree in 1918. After code-clerk work in Washington and Paris he returned to Columbus and became a Dispatch reporter in 1920.

He joined The New Yorker in 1927 with E. B. White's help and became one of its best-loved writers and cartoonists, famous for The Secret Life of Walter Mitty.

He went blind by 1941 but kept writing and drawing. He died in New York in 1961; his ashes are buried in Columbus.

Ohio ties

Columbus (1894-1918, 1920-1924)
birthplace and hometown; lived at the Norwich Hotel by 1906 Franklin County · source
Columbus, 77 Jefferson Avenue (1913-1917)
family home while he attended Ohio State; now Thurber House Franklin County · source
Columbus (Ohio State University) (1913-1918)
student; editor of the Sun-Dial; wrote for The Lantern Franklin County · source
Columbus (1920-1924)
reporter at The Columbus Dispatch, covering City Hall Franklin County · source

Timeline

1894 Born December 8 in Columbus. source
1913 Enrolled at Ohio State; the family moved into the rented house at 77 Jefferson Avenue. source
1915 On November 17 Thurber said he heard a ghost in the Jefferson Avenue house, the basis for "The Night the Ghost Got In." source
1918 Left Ohio State without a degree. source
1920 Hired by The Columbus Dispatch in August as a City Hall reporter; his pay rose from $25 to $40 a week before he left in 1924. source
1933 Harper & Brothers published My Life and Hard Times, his comic memoir of his Columbus family. source
1951 Declined an honorary degree from Ohio State in protest against academic censorship. source
1961 Died November 2 in New York; buried at Green Lawn Cemetery in Columbus near his parents. source
1979 77 Jefferson Avenue was listed on the National Register of Historic Places on November 8. source
1984 Thurber House opened as a museum and nonprofit literary center. source
1995 Ohio State awarded him its first posthumous doctorate. source
1997 The Thurber Prize for American Humor was established. source

What James is known for

The Secret Life of Walter Mitty
New Yorker contributor from 1927
My Life and Hard Times (1933)
The Secret Life of Walter Mitty (1939)
The Male Animal (1940)
The Thurber Carnival (1945)
The Years with Ross (1959)

Stories

The degree he refused, and the one he got anyway

Thurber never finished at Ohio State; he left in 1918 without a degree after editing the Sun-Dial humor magazine and writing for The Lantern. In 1951 the university offered him an honorary degree, and he turned it down as a protest against academic censorship on campus. The theme was not new for him: his 1940 Broadway play with Elliott Nugent, The Male Animal, is about an English instructor at a football-crazed Midwestern university whose trustees threaten to fire him for reading Bartolomeo Vanzetti's statement to his class. Thurber died in 1961 without the degree. In 1995, 34 years later, Ohio State gave him its first-ever posthumous doctorate; a Thurber House trustee called it a loose end that needed tying up.

Source

The night the ghost got in

The Thurbers rented the house at 77 Jefferson Avenue in Columbus, built around 1873, from 1913 to 1917 while James attended Ohio State. Thurber later claimed that on November 17, 1915, he experienced a ghost in the house. He turned the night into "The Night the Ghost Got In," one of the Columbus pieces in My Life and Hard Times. The house was listed on the National Register in 1979 and has run as Thurber House, a museum and literary center, since 1984.

Source

Honors and things named for them

Special Tony Award (1960)
Honorary degrees: Kenyon, Williams, Yale
US stamp (1994)
Thurber Prize for American Humor (1997)

Named for James Thurber

Thurber House (Columbus, Franklin County) source
Thurber Prize for American Humor source

Family

spouse: Althea Adams
spouse: Helen Wismer
daughter: Rosemary Thurber

Sites to know

Homes, graves, markers, museums and monuments; the numbered ones are on the map.

1 Thurber House
Columbus, 77 Jefferson Avenue Franklin County · source
2 Ohio Historical Marker 78-25, James Thurber
Columbus, 91 Jefferson Avenue Franklin County · source
3 Thurber grave, Green Lawn Cemetery (coordinates are for the cemetery)
Columbus, 1000 Greenlawn Avenue Franklin County · source

Places in Ohio to see

Thurber House (home)
77 Jefferson Ave, Columbus, Franklin County Columbus · Franklin County · official page
Green Lawn Cemetery (grave) (grave)
1000 Greenlawn Ave, Columbus, Franklin County ZIP 43223 · Columbus · Franklin County · official page

Ohio places

Where James Thurber was born, lived, worked and is remembered, with the ZIP code, town and county pages for each.

Born: Columbus, Franklin County ZIP 43215 · Columbus · Franklin County
Lived: Columbus, Franklin County (Thurber House, 77 Jefferson Avenue) ZIP 43215 · Columbus · Franklin County
Buried: Columbus, Franklin County (Green Lawn Cemetery) ZIP 43215 · Columbus · Franklin County

Myths and corrections

Things often said about James Thurber, and what the record shows.

Often said Thurber graduated from Ohio State.

The record He left in 1918 without a degree and refused an honorary one in 1951; Ohio State awarded him a posthumous doctorate in 1995. source

Often said Thurber lost his eye in a childhood accident in Columbus.

The record The arrow accident with his brother William happened around 1902 in Falls Church, Virginia, where the family was then living. source

Pictures

Free to use with the credit shown. Select a picture for the original and its license.

Part of illustration titled "Battle of the Sexes" by James Thurber; drawn on the wall of Costello's, a former ...
Public domain
Peggy Cass, James Thurber, and Joan Anderson
Public domain
James Thurber at age 14.
Public domain
High school graduation photo, East high school
Public domain
Thurber family portrait taken in Columbus, Ohio in 1915. From left to right: seated: Robert and Charles. Back ...
Public domain
Peggy Cass, James Thurber, and Joan Anderson
Public domain
Sketch by James Thurber from The Sundial
Public domain
In Columbus, Ohio.
Becker1999 / CC BY 2.0
James Thurber
E Daniel99 / CC BY-SA 4.0
James Thurber
E Daniel99 / CC BY-SA 4.0
Jabberwock Set
E Daniel99 / CC BY-SA 4.0
James Thurber grave 01 - Green Lawn Cemetery
Tim Evanson from Cleveland Heights, Ohio, USA / CC BY-SA 2.0