James Thurber
1894-1961
"I suppose the high-water mark of my youth in Columbus, Ohio, was the night the bed fell on my father."
Early Years When James Thurber was a child, he was hit in the eye with an arrow. He lost his sight in that eye, and was troubled with vision problems the rest of his life. Despite this setback, Thurber attended Ohio State University for five years. From 1918 to 1920, Thurber worked as a code clerk at the State Department in Washington and later in Paris. He then turned to journalism, working for the Chicago Tribune in Paris.
The New Yorker Years In 1927 the New Yorker magazine published one of Thurber's stories. Shortly thereafter, Thurber was given a full-time job as managing editor and staff writer. Although Thurber left the New Yorker after six years, he continued to contribute stories, essays, poems, and cartoons to the magazine for the rest of his life. In addition to writings, Thurber also provided illustrations for many of his works, and, although he did not consider himself an artist, his cartoons had a distinctive style and became as popular as his stories.
Near Blindness By the age of 57, Thurber's childhood eye injury had resulted in almost total blindness. When his vision began to fail completely, Thurber started dictating his stories to a secretary. His memory was so sharp that he could easily compose a 2,000-word story in his mind, remember it overnight, and dictate it to his secretary the next day.
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