Remember laughter

by Neil A. Grauer

One of the great American humorists of this century, James Thurber is still read and cherished by many readers more than thirty years after his death. He is most famous for the hilarious, often bittersweet stories that he published in the 1930s and 1940s in the New Yorker. Among his best-known books are My Life and Hard Times, Is Sex Necessary? (co-authored with E. B. White), My World - and Welcome to It, and The Thurber Carnival. He was also a brilliant cartoonist. His unique drawings were an eagerly awaited feature in Harold Ross's New Yorker and in Thurber's books. Grauer by no means sentimentalizes Thurber. He addresses serious, and often disturbing, features of Thurber's life (his failed first marriage, alcohol abuse, misogyny, and agonies over going blind when he was at the height of his success). At the same time, Grauer highlights Thurber's courage, inexhaustible humor, and unique literary and artistic talents. The result is a biography that both celebrates Thurber's genius and