The Great Quillow

James Thurber

Holt, Rinehart and Winston, In

Credos and Curios

Literature & Fiction

Classics

Harpercollins

Lanterns &amp; Lances by Thurber, James. 8vo.

Lanterns & Lances

Humor & Entertainment

Humor

Harper Brothers

“If this book isn’t a minor classic—and one uses the term ‘minor’ only because it is so gorgeously funny and not ponderous enough to be a major—well, one doesn’t know what book is. Let’s compromise and just call it a classic.” --Will Cuppy, New York Herald Tribune
The first book of prose published by either James Thurber or E. B. White, Is Sex Necessary? combines the humor and genius of both authors to examine those great mysteries of life—romance, love, and marriage. A masterpiece of drollery, this 75th Anniversary Edition stands the test of time with its sidesplitting spoof of men, women, and psychologists; more than fifty funny illustrations by Thurber; and a foreword by John Updike.

IS SEX NECESSARY

E·B·White

Perennial

Fables for Our Time and Famous Poems Illustrated

HarperCollins, Publishers

James Thurber was perhaps the most popular humorist of the first part of the 20th century in the USA. The 1931 collection, THE OWL IN THE ATTIC, that I picked up at a library sale, shows him at his peak as a writer who draws (as opposed to an artist who writes). The book is divided into three sections of essays. There's "Mr and Mrs Monroe", a series of vignettes about a young married couple in New York City. This is Thurber at his most familiar, dealing frankly with the battle of the sexes, depicted here more as a series of friendly skirmishes than as the more misanthropic wars he'd depict later in his career. Oddly, none of the accompanying illustrations depicted the couple themselves. There's "Ladies' and Gentlemen's Guide To Modern English Usage", a series of fractured essays where Thurber twists the rules of grammar in highly inappropriate ways. This is Thurber torturing the English language to hilarious ends, but the accompanying illustrations don't have all that much to do with the actual essays.

The Owl in the Attic and Other Perplexities

HarperCollins (paper)

Originally published in November 1939, two months after World War II officially began, James Thurber's parable in pictures-- a graphic novel ahead of its day--about eternal cycles of war, peace, love, and the resilience of one little flower remains as relevant today as it was then. The New York Times called it "at once one of the most serious and one of the most hilarious contributions on war." Civilization has collapsed after World War XII, dogs have deserted their masters, all the groves and gardens have been destroyed, and love has vanished from the earth. Then one day, "a young girl who had never seen a flower chanced to come upon the last one in the world." Written among the sorrow and chaos of war, dedicated to this only child " in the wistful hope that her world will be better than mine." The new printing will feature new scans of Thurber's original 1939 drawings.

The Last Flower - A Parable in Pictures

Comics & Graphic Novels

Graphic Novels

Lampoons medical books in offering a witty commentary on men and women and their doubts, prejudices, and sexual conditioning

Is Sex Necessary?: Or, Why You Feel the Way You Do

In My Life and Hard Times, Thurber returns to his starting point--the delightful chaos and frustrations brought on by family, boyhood, youth, odd dogs, and recalcitrant machinery in the quiet university town of his birth.
This is one of the most deeply humorous books of our century. Not only is it a "memoir" that takes into account the crumbling of empires, it talks "largely about small matters and smally about great affairs." Mostly it is about the widely incredible things people do when they think they are acting sensibly. Yet Thurber does more than just tickle your funny bone. He has quietly and unobtrusively, but permanently, deflated your false pride in the essential sanity and prudence of the human race.

My Life and Hard Times

Biographies & Memoirs

HarpPeren

“Thurber is...a landmark in American humor...he is the funniest artist who ever lived.” — New Republic
Widely hailed as one of the finest humorist of the twentieth century, James Thurber looks back at his own life growing up in Columbus, Ohio, with the same humor and sharp wit that defined his famous sketches and writings. In My Life and Hard times, first published in 1933, he recounts the delightful chaos and frustrations of family, boyhood, youth, odd dogs, recalcitrant machinery, and the foibles of human nature.

My Life and Hard Times (Perennial Classics)

Arts & Literature

Harper Perennial Modern Classics

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Books by James Thurber