Talk:James Thurber

New Yorker

I changed back "well known ... for the New Yorker" to "best known ... for the New Yorker". Thurber was a New Yorker writer and cartoonist. That was his identity. He may have written for some other magazine some time or other, but it didn't change his primary identification.Ortolan88 15:18, February 6, 2003

I agree. Even in his books, one cannot escape the words "New Yorker". Not only are the vast majority of pieces in the books from that magazine, but he mentions it frequently in the writing itself. --Karen | Talk | contribs 00:58, 16 August 2007 (UTC)

James Thurber Quotations

Excellent Quotations, wonder if some people can find and bring some more. Additional links to his comics and short stories are welcome.

Somebody blanked the quotations section a day ago, leaving only the header. In restoring the section, I've trimmed it back quite a bit, and transferred a few things to the Thurber article on Wikiquote,[1] which is rather extensive. As I understand it, WP:Trivia discourages large quotation sections on Wikipedia itself. Also, some of the quotes were either inexact or difficult to track down. For example, the only definite source I've found for the famous martini quip was a brief reference in an old issue of Time Magazine, which didn't match the text quoted here.

Links to Thurber's works online are problematic, because his work is still in copyright. Karen | Talk | contribs 07:58, 21 January 2007 (UTC)

Sexist statements

I think that James grover thurber was a little sexist Rusty Shakelford —The preceding unsigned comment was added by 70.89.166.19 (talk) 12:50, 26 April 2006'.

I think that he was a little fruity, it made me nervous. Tyler Perry —The preceding unsigned comment was added by 209.82.168.231 (talk) 18:40, 25 September 2006'.

Please do not delete the comments of others while adding your own. Also, the talk page is not a forum for statements of personal opinion about the subject of the article. It is for discussing ways to improve the article. Thank you. Karen | Talk | contribs 07:07, 26 September 2006 (UTC)

Question on Thurber's Death

I read on the NNDB James Thurber page that Thurber died of an aneurysm. However, since the official Thurber House site states "complications from pneumonia" I guess that stands.--Kulturvultur 22:48, 1 May 2007 (UTC)

The NNDB is not a reliable source. However, the Official Thurber House site is only semi-reliable, as it would naturally want to cover up anything untoward about Thurber's death. Both Brendan Gill and Katherine White said that Thurber had a brain tumour. (Of course, both of them also detested Thurber for his malice - and he really was an awful, awful, AWFUL human being even if only uninterested parties were relied upon - so they may also be semi-reliable.) --NellieBly (talk) 17:38, 3 April 2009 (UTC)

Ha

Figures, doesn't it, that this would turn out to be one of the more poorly-written articles in this so-called "encyclopedia". If Jim's up there reading this, I'm sure there's quite a jaundiced eye cast in this direction. +ILike2BeAnonymous 06:23, 14 July 2007 (UTC)

Lest I be accused of being a nattering nabob of negativity, cf. S. J. Perelman for a counter-example. +ILike2BeAnonymous 06:40, 14 July 2007 (UTC)

I doubt Thurber is "up there". He was an absolute monster of a human being - a vicious spouse abuser (who once threw his second wife across a room and gave her 50 stitches - of course, she worshipped him after his death), a bitter, violent alcoholic, and a malicious bastard who went out of the way to ruin other people's lives in any way he could. That such good, honest writing and such eloquent humor can come from such a twisted specimen is amazing. --NellieBly (talk) 17:41, 3 April 2009 (UTC)

It seems to me you've already expressed this opinion in the section above. It was irrelevant there, and it's irrelevant here. TheScotch (talk) 08:31, 20 December 2009 (UTC)

There are quite unexpected personal descriptions of E. B. White’s, Harold Ross’s and James Thurber’s lifes and characters in the book Robert K. Greenleaf, “The Power of Servant Leadership”. You might want to check them out. – Publius (talk) 11:10, 26 August 2023 (UTC)

Catbird Seat

An adoption of Thurber's The Catbird Seat was made into a British film The Battle of the Sexes (1960). It stars Peter Sellers and directed by Charles Crichton. MBG 203.171.197.129 (talk) 10:18, 15 February 2008 (UTC)

Dead External Links

Link to Thurber's World on earthlink seems to be dead (404) now? Not sure if I should just cut it, or are we supposed to try to trace it first, or maybe find a corresponding replacement link. (However, I don't have enough time just now to work on it...)

[I actually visited the article trying to find an assessment of his relative rank among American humorists, but didn't get any hint for that question. Not sure what criteria to apply, but I'd think he's fairly high... Surely Mark Twain is #1?] Shanen (talk) 10:45, 13 September 2008 (UTC)

Television

Re: "A full series based on Thurber's writings and life entitled My World and Welcome to It was broadcast on NBC in 1969-70, starring William Windom as the Thurber figure.":

If we're going to stick this bit of information in the article, why is there no mention of The Secret Life of Walter Mitty sixties television show starring Red Buttons? Does no one here remember it? (I see that the movie is mentioned.) TheScotch (talk) 08:35, 20 December 2009 (UTC)

Did you take drugs in the 60s? :-) I think your memory is defective; Buttons' show was called The Double (not "Secret") Life of Henry Phyfe, and had nothing whatever to do with Thurber's Mitty character. It lasted only one (very short) season in 1966. JustinTime55 (talk) 17:53, 11 November 2016 (UTC)

Copyright problem

This article has been reverted by a bot to this version as part of a large-scale clean-up project of multiple article copyright infringement. (See the investigation subpage) This has been done to remove User:Accotink2's contributions as they have a history of extensive copyright violation and so it is assumed that all of their major contributions are copyright violations. Earlier text must not be restored, unless it can be verified to be free of infringement. For legal reasons, Wikipedia cannot accept copyrighted text or images borrowed from other web sites or printed material; such additions must be deleted. Contributors may use sources as a source of information, but not as a source of sentences or phrases. Accordingly, the material may be rewritten, but only if it does not infringe on the copyright of the original or plagiarize from that source. Please see our guideline on non-free text for how to properly implement limited quotations of copyrighted text. Wikipedia takes copyright violations very seriously. VWBot (talk) 05:51, 10 December 2010 (UTC)

Bibliography Section Cleaned Up

I have cleaned up the bibliography section a little. I moved the ”incomplete” tag from the top of the bibliography to the Short Stories section, because Books currently lists all of Thurber's books (excluding the anthologies published in Britain because — unlike the U.S. anthologies — they contained no new material: Cream of Thurber, A Thurber Garland, and Vintage Thurber.) I moved three short story titles down to the short story list because none of them were published as individual books. I added several titles to the short story list because they have their own pages in Wikipedia. Tfmisc (talk) 15:09, 27 August 2011 (UTC)

Lead Paragraph Revised

I changed this:

James Grover Thurber (December 8, 1894 – November 2, 1961) was an American author, cartoonist and celebrated wit. Thurber was best known for his cartoons and short stories published in The New Yorker magazine. James Thurber was an American writer and artist. One of the most popular humorists (writers of clever humor) of his time, Thurber celebrated in stories and in cartoons the comic frustrations of eccentric yet ordinary people.

to this:

James Grover Thurber (December 8, 1894 – November 2, 1961) was an American author, cartoonist and celebrated wit. Thurber was best known for his cartoons and short stories, published mainly in The New Yorker magazine then collected in his numerous books. One of the most popular humorists of his time, Thurber celebrated the comic frustrations and eccentricities of ordinary people.

The former makes the point that Thurber was known for both writings and drawings FOUR times in a rather short paragraph; I have reduced it to two times. (I would have reduced it to one, but "short stories" should perhaps be changed to something like The New Yorker's idiosyncratic term "casuals"— since that more-inclusive though less-familiar word is more accurate — if an appropriate link can be made to a definition.) I replaced the gloss on "humorists" with a link; though I doubt a link is necessary, it's certainly preferable to that superficial definition in the text. I rephrased the last sentence because characterizing the same people as eccentric AND ordinary seems contradictory to me: otherwise-ordinary people may have a few eccentricities, but if they have so many quirks that they merit being characterized as eccentric then they're not ordinary.

Should the lead paragraph contain a reference to the thing that is most likely to "ring a bell" for those who are not well-acquainted with Thurber's works, his short story The Secret Life of Walter Mitty? Tfmisc (talk) 19:51, 6 February 2012 (UTC)

External links modified

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Verse?

Though the verse of Morris Bishop has been praised over the years, the only review I've yet found of its posthumous "Best of" anthology consists of just two sentences, the second of which reads, in full:

"But Nash's poetry is kinder, Thurber's is droller, and that of both -- better."

Oh.

I don't suppose this thrilled its anthologizer or publisher. But anyway -- yes, Thurber's poetry. I don't remember ever having encountered it. The only (apparent) mentions of poetry or verse in this article are of what's in Fables for Our Time and Famous Poems Illustrated -- which turns out not to include Thurber's poetry (instead, it pairs others' poems with his illustrations). A quick google for Thurber's poetry brings a handful of dreary copyright infringers, no more. Is there nothing that could be added here? -- Hoary (talk) 00:30, 11 November 2017 (UTC)

Middle Name

If my memory is not playing a trick on me, somewhere in his writings, Thurber gave his name as "James Murfreesboro Thurber," almost certainly jocularly. Anyone know anything about this? Kostaki mou (talk) 14:52, 27 March 2018 (UTC)

Grand children and son-in-Law

• Mark Thurber Sauers (1959-2014), Sara and Greg [2]
• Frederick W. Sauers (1929-2017) [3] --91.20.1.32 (talk) 15:11, 4 August 2018 (UTC)

The following link has triggered a protection filter: notablebiographies.com

• www.notablebiographies.com/St-Tr/Thurber-James.html

• James Thurber Biography, Encyclopedia of World Biography]

"Blacklisting indicates past problems with the link, so any requests should clearly demonstrate how inclusion would benefit Wikipedia...Either that exact link, or a portion of it (typically the root domain name) is currently blocked."

.... 0mtwb9gd5wx (talk) 18:46, 23 April 2023 (UTC)

Maybe the lack of mention on this wiki page IRT his health?

…The Last Flower appeared in 1939; that year Thurber …Collaboration.html with White on a play, The Male Animal. The play was a hit when it opened in 1940.

But this was also the year that Thurber was forced to undergo a series of eye operations for cataract and trachoma, two serious eye conditions. His eyesight grew steadily worse until, in 1951, it was so weak that he did his last drawing. He spent the last decade of his life in blindness.

But why is posting the link on talkpage is blocked as spam?
 :GSMC(Chief Mike) Kouklis U.S.NAVY Ret. ⛮🇺🇸 / 🇵🇭🌴^⍨talk 05:26, 14 November 2024 (UTC)