James Thurber

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James Thurber (1954)

James Grover Thurber (born December 8, 1894 in Columbus , Ohio , † November 2, 1961 in New York ) was an American writer and illustrator, who was best known for his short stories and fables , most of which were published in The New Yorker were first published.

Life

Thurber spent his childhood and youth in Columbus. He lost his left eye in an accident at the age of seven; his right eye was also injured, resulting in complete blindness in later years.

From 1913 to 1917 Thurber studied at Ohio State University , which he left without a degree in 1918 because he was unable to attend a mandatory ROTC training program due to his poor eyesight . However, he managed to acquire extensive literary knowledge during his student days. Posthumously, Ohio State University awarded him an honorary doctorate in 1995.

After completing his studies, he worked as an employee for the US government in Washington, then at the American embassy in Paris, until he finally became a foreign correspondent for a Chicago newspaper. Between 1918 and 1926, Thurber wrote for various American and French newspapers. In 1927 he began to work as an editor for the weekly magazine The New Yorker , in whose success he played a major role. His short stories, fables and anecdotes and, last but not least, his drawings decisively shaped the appearance of the New Yorker .

Because of his progressive blindness, it was no longer possible for Thurber to write his own articles since the early 1940s. He had his lyrics now dictate what increasingly embittered him and frequently than in his later work misanthropy and misogyny expressed. Even after he was completely blind, he continued to work as a writer until his stroke and death in the fall of 1961, and he often took part actively in theater performances.

In Thurber's honor, the Thurber Prize for American Humor has been awarded annually since 1996 .

Artistic creation

In his humorous stories, fables and drawings, Thurber expressed the contrast between the naivety of the individual and the complexity of the modern world, choosing particularly subjects such as sexuality , psychoanalysis and problems of communication in the technical age as subjects.

Despite the unmistakably humorous traits, Thurber's stories almost without exception have a more serious or tragic background.

Characteristic of his work are small, private scenes, marriage as an inexplicable guerrilla war and the absurdities of everyday life, behind which deeper things are hidden and where his protagonists often fail. One of the typical Thurber figures is the “little man” as a shy, slightly neurotic dreamer, whose identity is threatened in a dreary everyday life by aggressive women, uniform crowds or technology. Like his best-known representative Walter Mitty , he often takes refuge in the illusory world of fantasy .

Works

  • The Last Flower
  • Is sex necessary? (1929) (with EB White ) (Eng. Why love?)
  • My Life and Hard Times (1933)
  • The Owl in the Attic and Other Perplexities (1931)
  • The Seal in the Bedroom and Other Predicaments (1932)
  • The Middle Aged Man on the Flying Trapeze (1935)
  • Let your mind alone! (1937)
  • The Male Animal (1937)
  • The Unicorn in the Garden
  • The Secret Life of Walter Mitty (German Walter Mitty's Secret Life )
  • The Peacelike Mongoose
  • Fables for Our Times (1939, in book form 1940) (German 75 fables for contemporaries)
  • The Very Proper Gander (1940)
  • My World and Welcome To It (1942)
  • Many Moons (1943) (German The Princess and the Moon / One Moon for Leonore)
  • Men, Women and Dogs (1943) (German men, women and dogs)
  • Thurber Country (1943)
  • The Thurber Carnival (1945) (selected works; German Save yourself who can 1948)
  • The White Deer (1945)
  • The Beast in Me and Other Animals (1948)
  • The 13 Clocks (1950)
  • The Thurber Album (1952)
  • Wonderful O (1953) (Eng. The mysterious O; also: The wonderful O)
  • Thurber's Dogs (1955) (This is how the dog speaks)
  • Further Fables for Our Time (1956)
  • Alarms and Diversions (1957)

In German translation

  • Save yourself who can! Reinbek near Hamburg 1948
  • The last flower Rowohlt Taschenbuch 85, Hamburg, June 1953
  • Thurber's guest book. 1956
  • This is how the dog speaks Rowohlt Taschenbuch, Reinbek near Hamburg, October 1958
  • Laughing with Thurber (selection from cartoons, stories and fables) Rowohlt, Reinbek near Hamburg, 1964
  • The mysterious O (also: The wonderful O ) Karl Rauch Verlag, Düsseldorf 1967
  • Seventy-five fables for contemporaries. Dedicated to incorrigible sinners. Reinbek near Hamburg 1967, 1991. ISBN 978-3-498-09820-9
  • Collected stories. Reinbek near Hamburg 1971. ISBN 978-3-498-09415-7
  • The man who knew too little. Stories. Reinbek near Hamburg 1994. ISBN 3-499-13288-5
  • About the man who held his breath. Selected by Hans Magnus Enzensberger . Frankfurt a. M. 2006, Die Andere Bibliothek series , ISBN 3-8218-4566-X .
  • A moon for Leonore or the art of finding happiness . With Philip Waechter . 2007. ISBN 978-3-8363-0017-9

Film adaptations

  • 1942: Subject: Der Mann ( The Male Animal )
  • 1947: The Double Life of Walter Mitty ( The Secret Life of Walter Mitty )
  • 1959: Mister Miller is not a killer ( The Battle of the Sexes )
  • 1972: War between men and women ( War Between Men and Women )
  • 2013: The Secret Life of Walter Mitty ( The Secret Life of Walter Mitty )

literature

  • Burton Bernstein: Thurber. A biography. New York: Dodd, Mead. 1975. ISBN 0-396-07027-2
  • Stephen A. Black: James Thurber. His masquerades. A critical study. The Hague et al .: Mouton. 1970. (= Studies in American literature; 23)
  • Thomas Fensch: The man who was Walter Mitty. The life and work of James Thurber. Woodlands, Tx .: New Century Books. 2000. ISBN 0-930751-14-0
  • Neil A. Grauer: Remember laughter. A life of James Thurber. 2nd ed. Lincoln, Neb., Among others: Univ. of Nebraska Press. 1995. ISBN 0-8032-2155-X
  • Charles S. Holmes: The clocks of Columbus. The literary career of James Thurber. London: Alison Pr. 1973.
  • Harrison Kinney: James Thurber. His life and times. New York: Holt. 1997. ISBN 0-8050-3966-X
  • Robert Emmet Long: James Thurber. New York: Ungar et al. 1988. ISBN 0-8044-2546-9
  • Robert E. Morsberger: James Thurber. New York: Twayne. 1964. (= Twayne's United States authors series; 62)
  • Richard C. Tobias: The Art of James Thurber. Athens, Ohio: Ohio Univ. Pr. 1969.
  • Sarah E. Toombs: James Thurber. An annotated bibliography of criticism. New York et al: Garland. 1987. ISBN 0-8240-8643-0

Web links

Commons : James Thurber  - collection of images, videos and audio files
Wikiquote: James Thurber  - Quotes

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Cf. James Thurber: His Life and Times ( Memento of the original from October 21, 2016 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. . On: Thurber House. Retrieved January 3, 2015. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / thurberhouse.org
  2. ↑ Cf. Jens Martin Gurr: James Thurber: The Secret Life of Walter Mitty. In: Michael Hanke (Ed.): Interpretations · American Short Stories of the 20th Century . Reclam jun. Verlag, Stuttgart 1998, ISBN 3-15-017506-2 , pp. 36–43, here p. 36.
  3. ↑ Cf. Jens Martin Gurr: James Thurber: The Secret Life of Walter Mitty. In: Michael Hanke (Ed.): Interpretations · American Short Stories of the 20th Century . Reclam jun. Verlag, Stuttgart 1998, ISBN 3-15-017506-2 , pp. 36–43, here p. 37. See also James Thurber: His Life and Times ( Memento of the original from October 21, 2016 in the Internet Archive ) Info: Der Archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. . On: Thurber House. Retrieved January 3, 2015. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / thurberhouse.org
  4. ↑ See John V. Hagopian: James Thurber . In: John V. Hagopian, Martin Dolch (Eds.): Insight I Analyzes of American Literature , Hirschgraben Verlag Frankfurt a. M. 1971, pp. 236-242, here p. 236 f.
  5. ↑ Cf. Jens Martin Gurr: James Thurber: The Secret Life of Walter Mitty. In: Michael Hanke (Ed.): Interpretations · American Short Stories of the 20th Century . Reclam jun. Verlag, Stuttgart 1998, ISBN 3-15-017506-2 , pp. 36-43, here pp. 36f.


personal data
SURNAME Thurber, James
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Thurber, James Grover (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American writer and illustrator
DATE OF BIRTH December 8, 1894
PLACE OF BIRTH Columbus , Ohio , USA
DATE OF DEATH November 2nd, 1961
Place of death New York , USA