James Thurber
Writings & Drawings (including The Secret Life of Walter Mitty)
1 of 1 copy available
James Thurber, whimsical fantasist and deadpan chronicler of everyday absurdities, brought American humor into the 20th century. His comic persona, a modern city-dweller whose zaniest flights of free association are tinged with anxiety, remains hilarious, subtly disturbing, and instantly recognizable.
Here, in over 1,000 pages, editor Garrison Keillor presents the best and most extensive collection ever assembled. Pieces include “The Secret Life of Walter Mitty” and “The Catbird Seat,” the brilliantly satirical Fables for Our Time, the classic My Life and Hard Times, and the best of The Owl in the Attic, Let Your Mind Alone!, My World—And Welcome to It, and the other famous books. Plus 500 wonderful drawings, including The Seal in the Bedroom and celebrated sequences like “The Masculine Approach” and “The War Between Men and Women.” Rounding out the volume is a selection from The Years with Ross, a memoir of the New Yorker publisher, and a number of wonderful early pieces never collected by Thurber.
Only a book of this scope can do justice to Thurber’s extraordinary career and to the many unexpected turns of his comic genius.
LIBRARY OF AMERICA is an independent nonprofit cultural organization founded in 1979 to preserve our nation’s literary heritage by publishing, and keeping permanently in print, America’s best and most significant writing. The Library of America series includes more than 300 volumes to date, authoritative editions that average 1,000 pages in length, feature cloth covers, sewn bindings, and ribbon markers, and are printed on premium acid-free paper that will last for centuries.
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Creators
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Publisher
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Release date
October 1, 1996 -
Formats
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Kindle Book
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OverDrive Read
- ISBN: 9781598533125
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EPUB ebook
- ISBN: 9781598533125
- File size: 16070 KB
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Languages
- English
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Reviews
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September 15, 1996
This work represents each decade of Thurber's writing career, from the slight New Yorker sketches of the 1920s to the irreverently affectionate portrait of that magazine's founder, The Years with Ross, of the late 1950s. Keillor's selection of Thurber's oeuvre is both the most generous and the most judicious volume available. Known largely for The Secret Life of Walter Mitty (1939), which dramatizes the battle of the sexes and the male animal's ineptitude in the face of modern technology, Thurber was an Algonquin stylist with a wide range of talents. These talents are effectively displayed here in the self-deprecating reminiscences of his eccentric Columbus, Ohio, family; beast fables with a cutting edge; and almost 500 inimitable line drawings. A valuable work; highly recommended for all libraries.--Charles C. Nash, Cottey Coll., Nevada, Mo. -
September 1, 1996
American humorists have always helped define American culture by satirizing its more absurd habits of mind, fads, and institutions. James Thurber (1894^-1961) is one of the giants in this fine tradition, and now the entire scope of his sharp wit and poignant whimsy is gathered together in this invaluable volume. Selected by Garrison Keillor, a Thurber soul-mate if ever there was one, these stories, parodies, reminiscences, cartoons, and drawings present Thurber's unique and masterful take on work, psychotherapy, fantasizing, domesticity, and the battle between the sexes. The volume includes the now classic "Secret Life of Walter Mitty," the unforgettable images of "The Seal in the Bedroom," and his autobiography, "My Life and Hard Times," as well as a number of previously uncollected pieces. A painstaking writer, Thurber found release in the spontaneity of his drawings, and the dynamic contrast between the ironic intensity of his prose and the quicksilver inventiveness of his cartoons is intrinsic to the power of his work. ((Reviewed Sept. 1, 1996))(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 1996, American Library Association.)
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