James Grover Thurber – amerykański humorysta i satyryczny rysownik. Najbardziej znany z rysunków i opowiadań zamieszczanych w magazynie The New Yorker.
W dzieciństwie stracił oko, trafiony strzałą przez brata; na drugie widział odtąd coraz gorzej. Po studiach na Uniwersytecie Ohio był w latach 1918-20 szyfrantem Departamentu Stanu, w Waszyngtonie i w Paryżu, w latach 1921-4 reporterem Columbus Dispatch.
W 1925 roku przeniósł się do Nowego Jorku i pracował tam dla New York Evening Post, a od 1927 roku w The New Yorker jako redaktor. Pierwsze jego rysunki ukazały się w tym magazynie w 1930 roku i odtąd publikowano je tam regularnie do początku lat 50., kiedy ostatecznie osłabł mu wzrok.
Najbardziej znane jego opowiadania to The Dog Who Bit People oraz The Night the Bed Fell, zamieszczone w książce My Life and Hard Times , mieszance autobiografii i prozy, która przyniosła mu jako pierwsza uznanie, oraz słynne The Secret Life of Walter Mitty, o heroicznych snach na jawie spokojnego, uporządkowanego żonatego mężczyzny w średnim wieku, ze zbioru My World - And Welcome to It . Patrz film: Sekretne życie Waltera Mitty z 2013 roku.
Napisał także ponad 75 bajek; kilka baśni książkowej długości; i liczne humorystyczne eseje, np. o współczesnym mu języku angielskim. Analizował też fenomen radiowych oper mydlanych.
Wikipedia
“All men should strive to learn before they die what they are running from, and to, and why.”
"The Shore and the Sea", Further Fables for Our Time (first publication, 1956)
From Fables for Our Time and Further Fables for Our Time
“Beautiful things don't ask for attention.”
Źródło: The Secret Life of Walter Mitty
“Don't get it right, just get it written.”
"The Sheep in Wolf's Clothing", The New Yorker (29 April 1939); Fables for Our Time & Famous Poems Illustrated (1940). The moral is ironic with respect to the fable, in which sheep do insufficient research before writing about wolves, resulting in the sheep being easy prey.
From Fables for Our Time and Further Fables for Our Time
Wariant: Don't get it right, just get it written.
The Thirteen Clocks (1951) page 32
From other fiction
“Humor is emotional chaos remembered in tranquility.”
Quoted in New York Post (29 February 1960)
Letters and interviews
“It is better to ask some of the questions than to know all the answers.”
"The Scotty Who Knew Too Much", The New Yorker (18 February 1939)
From Fables for Our Time and Further Fables for Our Time
“There are two kinds of light — the glow that illumines, and the glare that obscures.”
Lanterns and Lances (1961), p. 146; also misquoted as "There are two kinds of light — the glow that illuminates, and the glare that obscures."
From Lanterns and Lances
"The Darlings at the Top of the Stairs", Lanterns & Lances (1961); previously appeared in The Queen and in Harper's Magazine.
From Lanterns and Lances
"An Introduction", The Fireside Book of Dog Stories (Simon and Schuster, 1943); reprinted in Thurber's Dogs (1955)
From other writings
"Carpe Noctem, If You Can", Credos and Curios (1962)
From other writings
“Remember laughter. You'll need it even in the blessed isles of Ever After.”
Źródło: The 13 Clocks
“Well, if I called the wrong number, why did you answer the phone?”
Cartoon caption, The New Yorker (5 June 1937); "Word Dance--Part One", A Thurber Carnival (1960)
Cartoon captions
Źródło: Collecting Himself: James Thurber On Writing And Writers, Humor And Himself
“One (martini) is all right, two is too many, three is not enough.”
Quoted in Time Magazine (New York, 15 August 1960) from an an interview with Glenna Syse of the Chicago Sun-Times
Letters and interviews
“Time is for dragonflies and angels. The former live too little and the latter live too long.”
Źródło: The 13 Clocks
“You can fool too many of the people too much of the time.”
"The Owl who was God", The New Yorker (29 April 1939); Fables for Our Time & Famous Poems Illustrated (1940). Parody of "You can fool all the people some of the time and some of the people all of the time, but you cannot fool all the people all the time."
From Fables for Our Time and Further Fables for Our Time
"My Senegalese Birds and Siamese Cats", Holiday Magazine; reprinted in Lanterns & Lances (1961).
From Lanterns and Lances