Editing James Thurber (section)

==Life==
Thurber was born in [[Columbus, Ohio]], to Charles L. Thurber and Mary Agnes "Mame" (née Fisher) Thurber on December 8, 1894. Both of his parents greatly influenced his work. His father was a sporadically employed clerk and minor politician who dreamed of being a lawyer or an actor. Thurber described his mother as a "born comedian" and "one of the finest comic talents I think I have ever known". She was a practical joker and on one occasion pretended to be disabled, and attended a faith healer revival only to jump up and proclaim herself healed.<ref name="Authors">{{cite web|url=http://www.kirjasto.sci.fi/thurber.htm |title=James Thurber |website=Books and Writers (kirjasto.sci.fi) |first=Petri |last=Liukkonen |publisher=[[Kuusankoski]] Public Library |location=Finland |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060819141311/http://www.kirjasto.sci.fi/thurber.htm |archive-date=August 19, 2006 |url-status=dead }}</ref>

Due to overcrowding in his grandfather's house, where his family had moved while his father recovered from an illness, Thurber often stayed at the home of his aunt, Margery Albright. Albright lived in [[Downtown Columbus, Ohio|Downtown Columbus]] near [[Holy Cross Church (Columbus, Ohio)|Holy Cross Church]], the clock and bell of which Thurber would reference in later writing.<ref>{{Cite news |last=Blundo |first=Joe |date=30 October 2011 |title=Thurber's world and welcome to it |url=https://infoweb-newsbank-com.oh0024.oplin.org/apps/news/openurl?ctx_ver=z39.88-2004&rft_id=info%3Asid/infoweb.newsbank.com&svc_dat=NewsBank&req_dat=0E57256569C75960&rft_val_format=info%3Aofi/fmt%3Akev%3Amtx%3Actx&rft_dat=document_id%3Anews%252F13AB60785BF94528 |work=[[The Columbus Dispatch]]}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news |last=Blundo |first=Joe |date=7 December 2008 |title=Humorist put a face on our city for nation |url=https://infoweb-newsbank-com.oh0024.oplin.org/apps/news/openurl?ctx_ver=z39.88-2004&rft_id=info%3Asid/infoweb.newsbank.com&svc_dat=NewsBank&req_dat=0E57256569C75960&rft_val_format=info%3Aofi/fmt%3Akev%3Amtx%3Actx&rft_dat=document_id%3Anews%252F124F02A5F327C3A0 |work=[[The Columbus Dispatch]]}}</ref>

[[File:James Thurber 1.jpg|thumb|upright|Thurber at age 14]]

When Thurber was seven years old, he and one of his brothers were playing a [[Shooting an apple off one's child's head#William Tell|game of William Tell]], when his brother shot James in the eye with an arrow.<ref>{{Cite news|url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/why-is-there-a-street-in-falls-church-va-named-after-james-thurber/2018/04/07/98d14084-3903-11e8-9c0a-85d477d9a226_story.html|title=Perspective {{!}} Why is there a street in Falls Church, Va., named after James Thurber?|last=Kelly|first=John|date=April 7, 2018|newspaper=Washington Post|access-date=May 17, 2018|language=en-US|issn=0190-8286|archive-date=December 13, 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191213153219/https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/why-is-there-a-street-in-falls-church-va-named-after-james-thurber/2018/04/07/98d14084-3903-11e8-9c0a-85d477d9a226_story.html|url-status=live}}</ref> He lost that eye, and the injury later caused him to become almost entirely blind. He was unable to participate in sports and other activities in his childhood because of this injury, but he developed a creative mind, which he used to express himself in writings.<ref name="Authors"/> Neurologist [[V. S. Ramachandran]] suggests that Thurber's imagination may be partly explained by [[Charles Bonnet syndrome]], a neurological condition that causes complex visual hallucinations in people who have had some level of visual loss.<ref>{{cite book|pages=85–7|title=Phantoms in the Brain|author=V.S. Ramachandran| publisher = HarperCollins | year = 1988 |author2=Sandra Blakeslee|title-link=Phantoms in the Brain|author2-link=Sandra Blakeslee|author-link=V. S. Ramachandran}}</ref> (This was the basis for the piece "The Admiral on the Wheel".)

[[File:James Thurber 2.jpg|thumb|upright|High school graduation photo, East High School]]
[[File:James Thurber.jpg|thumb|Thurber family portrait taken in Columbus, Ohio, in 1915. From left to right: seated: Robert and Charles. Back row: William, James, and Mame]]

From 1913 to 1918, Thurber attended [[Ohio State University]] where he was a member of the [[Phi Kappa Psi]] fraternity and editor of the student magazine, the ''[[Sundial Humor Magazine|Sundial]]''. It was during this time that he rented the house on 77 Jefferson Avenue,<ref name="csmonitor/life-James-Thurber">{{cite news |last1=Tonguette |first1=Peter |title=The not-so-secret life of James Thurber |url=https://www.csmonitor.com/The-Culture/2019/0711/The-not-so-secret-life-of-James-Thurber |access-date=April 23, 2023 |work=[[Christian Science Monitor]] |date=July 11, 2019}}</ref> which became [[Thurber House]] in 1984. He never graduated from the university because his poor eyesight prevented him from taking a mandatory [[Reserve Officers' Training Corps]] (ROTC) course.<ref name="House">{{cite web|author=Thurber House|title=James Thurber|url=http://www.thurberhouse.org/james/james.html|access-date=October 14, 2007|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071012130424/http://thurberhouse.org/james/james.html |archive-date=October 12, 2007}}</ref> In 1995 he was posthumously awarded a degree.<ref name="House2">{{cite web|author=Thurber House |title=James Thurber: His Life & Times |url=http://www.thurberhouse.org/james/life_2.html |access-date=October 14, 2007 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060114100742/http://www.thurberhouse.org/james/life_2.html |archive-date=January 14, 2006 }}</ref>

[[File:James Thurber House.jpg|thumb|right|The [[Thurber House]]<ref>[https://web.archive.org/web/20071012130424/http://thurberhouse.org/james/james.html The Thurber House website]</ref> in [[Columbus, Ohio]]]]

From 1918 to 1920, Thurber worked as a code clerk for the [[United States Department of State]], first in Washington, D.C., and then at the [[Embassy of the United States, Paris|embassy in Paris]]. On returning to Columbus, he began his career as a reporter for ''[[The Columbus Dispatch]]'' from 1921 to 1924. During part of this time, he reviewed books, films, and plays in a weekly column called "Credos and Curios", a title that was given to a posthumous collection of his work. Thurber returned to Paris during this period, where he wrote for the ''[[Chicago Tribune]]'' and other newspapers.<ref name="House2"/>

===Move to New York===
In 1925, Thurber moved to [[Greenwich Village]] in New York City, obtaining a job as a reporter with the ''[[New York Post|New York Evening Post]]''. He joined the staff of ''[[The New Yorker]]'' in 1927 as an editor, with the help of [[E. B. White]], his friend and fellow ''New Yorker'' contributor. His career as a cartoonist began in 1930 after White found some of Thurber's drawings in a trash can and submitted them for publication; White inked-in some of these earlier drawings to make them reproduce better for the magazine, and years later expressed deep regret he had done such a thing. Thurber contributed both his writings and his drawings to ''The New Yorker'' until the 1950s.{{cn|date=July 2024}}

===Marriage and family===
Thurber married Althea Adams in 1922, although the marriage, as he later wrote to a friend, devolved into "a relationship charming, fine, and hurting".<ref>{{cite web|title=Is Sex Necessary?|url=https://www.theattic.space/home-page-blogs/2018/9/7/is-sex-necessary|website=The Attic|date=September 7, 2018|access-date=September 8, 2018|archive-date=April 6, 2023|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230406041526/https://www.theattic.space/home-page-blogs/2018/9/7/is-sex-necessary|url-status=live}}</ref> They lived in the [[Sanford–Curtis–Thurber House]], in [[Fairfield County, Connecticut]], with their daughter Rosemary<ref name="lithub/grandfathers-book">{{cite web |last1=Sauers |first1=Sara T. |title=Designing Your Grandfather's Book (When He's James Thurber) |url=https://lithub.com/designing-your-grandfathers-book-when-hes-james-thurber/ |website=[[Literary Hub]] |access-date=April 23, 2023 |date=August 30, 2019 |archive-date=December 28, 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221228050210/https://lithub.com/designing-your-grandfathers-book-when-hes-james-thurber/ |url-status=live }}</ref> (b. 1931).<ref name="connecticutcreativeplaces/sanford-curtis-thurber">{{cite web |title=71 Riverside Road, Newtown |url=https://connecticutcreativeplaces.org/places/sanford-curtis-thurber-house |website=Connecticut Creative Places |access-date=April 23, 2023}}</ref><ref name="newstimes/11055925">{{cite news |last1=Koerting |first1=Katrina |title=Newtown home once belonged to humorist James Thurber |url=https://www.newstimes.com/realestate/article/Newtown-home-once-belonged-to-humorist-James-11055925.php |access-date=April 23, 2023 |work=[[The News-Times]] |date=April 6, 2017}}</ref><ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1975/03/12/archives/a-window-into-thurbers-secret-life.html|title=A Window Into Thurber's Secret Life|newspaper=The New York Times|first=Michael|last=Knight|date=March 12, 1975|access-date=August 4, 2018|archive-date=August 4, 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180804201414/https://www.nytimes.com/1975/03/12/archives/a-window-into-thurbers-secret-life.html|url-status=live}}</ref> The marriage ended in divorce in May 1935, and Althea kept<ref name="ctpost/11055925">{{cite news |last1=Koerting |first1=Katrina |title=Newtown home once belonged to humorist James Thurber |url=https://www.ctpost.com/realestate/article/Newtown-home-once-belonged-to-humorist-James-11055925.php |access-date=April 23, 2023 |work=[[Connecticut Post]] |date=April 6, 2017 |quote=At one point, Thurber had drawn several cartoons on the baseboards, but when he and his wife, Althea, divorced in 1935, she got the house and wallpapered them over. |archive-date=April 23, 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230423191018/https://www.ctpost.com/realestate/article/Newtown-home-once-belonged-to-humorist-James-11055925.php |url-status=live }}</ref> Sanford–Curtis–Thurber House.<ref name="Authors"/> He married his editor, Helen Muriel Wismer (1902–1986) in June 1935.<ref>{{Cite news|title=Helen Thurber Is Dead at 84; Edited Writings of Husband|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1986/12/26/obituaries/helen-thurber-is-dead-at-84-edited-writings-of-husband.html|journal=The New York Times|access-date=January 11, 2016|date=December 26, 1986|archive-date=March 8, 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160308232626/http://www.nytimes.com/1986/12/26/obituaries/helen-thurber-is-dead-at-84-edited-writings-of-husband.html|url-status=live}}</ref> After meeting [[Mark Van Doren]] on a ferry to [[Martha's Vineyard]], Thurber began summering in [[Cornwall, Connecticut|Cornwall]], Connecticut, along with many other prominent artists and authors of the time. After three years of renting, Thurber found a home, which he referred to as "The Great Good Place", in Cornwall, Connecticut.<ref name="connecticutcreativeplaces/Great Good Place">{{cite web |title=92 Great Hollow Road, Cornwall |url=https://connecticutcreativeplaces.org/places/birdseye-and-tanner-brook-farm |website=Connecticut Creative Places |access-date=April 23, 2023 |archive-date=August 31, 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240831020343/https://connecticutcreativeplaces.org/places/birdseye-and-tanner-brook-farm |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>{{Cite news|last=Sommer|first=Mimi G.|date=August 3, 1997|title=Finding Thurber at Grandfather's House|language=en-US|work=The New York Times|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1997/08/03/nyregion/finding-thurber-at-grandfather-s-house.html|access-date=September 2, 2020|issn=0362-4331|archive-date=April 7, 2023|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230407115113/https://www.nytimes.com/1997/08/03/nyregion/finding-thurber-at-grandfather-s-house.html|url-status=live}}</ref>

===Death===
Thurber's behavior became erratic in his last year. Thurber was stricken with a blood clot on the brain on October 4, 1961, and underwent emergency surgery, drifting in and out of consciousness. Although the operation was initially successful, Thurber died a few weeks later, on November 2, aged 66, due to complications from [[pneumonia]]. The doctors said his brain was [[Senescence|senescent]] from several small strokes and hardening of the arteries. His [[last words]], aside from the repeated word "God", were "God bless... God damn", according to his wife, Helen.<ref name="Bernstein 501">{{cite book|last=Bernstein|first=Burton|title=Thurber|publisher=[[Dodd, Mead & Company]]|year=1975|location=New York|page=[https://archive.org/details/thurberbiography00bern/page/501 501]|isbn=978-0-396-07027-6|url=https://archive.org/details/thurberbiography00bern|url-access=registration}}</ref>