Thurber left his staff position at The New Yorker in 1935, but continued to submit cartoons and stories.Īfter talking for years about writing a play together, Thurber and fellow Phi Kappa Psi brother, Elliott Nugent, collaborated in 1940 on a comedy play called The Male Animal. Following the book’s publication, Thurber’s cartoons were featured regularly in The New Yorker, and he drew the cover art six times. Soon after, Thurber and White collaborated on their first book, Is Sex Necessary?, featuring a number of Thurber’s cartoons. This began Thurber’s decades-long career contributing drawings and writing to The New Yorker. One day, White found some of Thurber’s drawings in a trash can and submitted them to The New Yorker for publication. White and Thurber shared an office at The New Yorker. White (author of Stuart Little, Charlotte’s Web, and other beloved books) introduced Thurber to Harold Ross, editor at The New Yorker. The young couple married in Columbus in 1922 and moved to Paris in 1925, where Thurber started work on the Paris edition of the Chicago Tribune.Īfter stretching their francs as far as they could, the Thurbers moved to New York in 1926 and Thurber began his career as a freelance writer while working for the New York Evening Post. During his stint at the Dispatch, Thurber covered stories such as the opening of Ohio Stadium, and for a time had his own column called “Credos and Curios.” Thurber spent his evenings working on skits for the Strollers and Scarlet Mask theatre groups at Ohio State-where he met his first wife, Althea Adams. He returned to Columbus in 1920 and joined The Columbus Dispatch as a reporter. Due to his partial blindness, Thurber was not able to complete a compulsory ROTC course and couldn’t graduate from OSU-although the university gave him a posthumous honorary degree many years later, in 1995.Īfter college, Thurber worked as a code clerk for the State Department in Washington, D.C., and later at the American Embassy in Paris, France. It was at this time that the Thurbers rented the house at 77 Jefferson Avenue (which became Thurber House in 1984).

After the encouragement of friend Elliott Nugent, Thurber joined the Phi Kappa Psi fraternity.

After the Thurber family’s brief move to Washington, D.C., they returned to Columbus, where Thurber attended Sullivant Elementary School and Douglas Junior High School, before graduating from East High School in 1913.įrom 1913–1918, Thurber attended The Ohio State University, where he wrote for the college paper, The Lantern, and was editor-in-chief of The Sun Dial humor and literary magazine.

The secret life of james thurber