James Thurber

A henpecked husband copes with the frustrations of his dull life by imagining he is a fearless airplane pilot, a brilliant doctor, and other dashing figures.

The Secret Life of Walter Mitty

E. B. White

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 new foreword by John Updike.

Or Why You Feel the Way You Do

Is Sex Necessary?

Relates what happened when an evil sea captain banished the letter O from the island Ooroo.

The Wonderful O

James Thurber is universally admired for his hilarious sense of humour, off-beat imagination and unique take on the world around him. The Secret Life of Walter Mitty, in which a young man's fantasies have a much more powerful hold on him than reality, is probably his best-known prose work, but this selection also contains wonderfully entertaining essays, poetry and cartoons gathered from all of Thurber's collections. Poking fun at his own weaknesses and those of other people (and dogs) - the English teacher who looked only at figures of speech, the Airedale who refused to include him in the family, the botany lecturer who despaired of him totally - James Thurber is essential reading for everyone who loves to laugh.

The Secret Life of Walter Mitty and Other Pieces

A giant of American humor makes his Penguin Classics debut with “probably the best book in the world” (Neil Gaiman, from the Introduction), in a stunning Deluxe Edition featuring the original, full-color illustrations The hands of all thirteen clocks stand still in the gloomy castle on a lonely hill where a wicked Duke lives with his niece, the beautiful Princess Saralinda. The Duke fancies he has frozen time, for he is afraid that one day a Prince may come and win away the hand of the Princess—the only warm hand in the castle. To thwart that fate, he sets impossible tasks for Saralinda’s suitors. But when the bold Prince Zorn of Zorna arrives, disguised as a wandering minstrel, and helped by the enigmatic Golux, the cold Duke may at last have met his match. Since it was first published in 1950, James Thurber’s sublimely whimsical fairy tale of love forestalled but ultimately fulfilled has delighted readers of all ages. It is published here with Marc Simont’s enchanting, full-color illustrations from the first edition. For more than seventy years, Penguin has been the leading publisher of classic literature in the English-speaking world. With more than 1,700 titles, Penguin Classics represents a global bookshelf of the best works throughout history and across genres and disciplines. Readers trust the series to provide authoritative texts enhanced by introductions and notes by distinguished scholars and contemporary authors, as well as up-to-date translations by award-winning translators.

(Penguin Classics Deluxe Edition)

The 13 Clocks

James Thurber's unique ability to convey the vagaries of life in a funny, witty, and often satirical way earned him accolades as one of the finest humorists of the twentieth century. A bestseller upon its initial publication in 1945. The Thurber Carnival captures the depth and breadth of his talent. The pieces here, almost all of which first appeared in The New Yorker, include selections from such beloved classics as My World and Welcome to It, The Owl in the Attic, The Seal in the Bathroom, and Men, Women and Dogs. Thurber's take on life, society, and human nature is timeless and will continue to delight readers even as they recognize a bit of themselves in his brilliant sketches.

The Thurber Carnival

Published to coincide with the 125th anniversary of James Thurber’s birth, this treasury combines, for the first time, Fables for Our Time and Further Fables for Our Time with Thurber’s unpublished preface and ten previously uncollected or unpublished stories. James Thurber has been called “one of the world’s greatest humorists” by Alistair Cooke (Atlantic), “one of our great American institutions” (Stanley Walker), “a magnificent satirist” (Boston Transcript)—and few works reveal Thurber’s genius as powerfully as his fables. Perennially entertaining and astutely satirical, Thurber pinpricks the idiosyncrasies of life with verbal frivolity, hilarious insights, political shrewdness, and, of course, quirky, quotable morals. Now, readers can savor 85 fables by the twentieth century’s preeminent humorist collected for the first time in a single anthology: Fables for Our Time, Further Fables for Our Time, Thurber’s unpublished preface, and ten previously uncollected fables—illustrated by ten contemporary artists including Seymour Chwast, Mark Ulriksen, Laurie Rosenwald, and R. O. Blechman—Collected Fables is a must-have for readers of all ages.

Collected Fables

Contains two of the humorist's short stories: the story of aviator Smurch, an amusing satire on the "perilous heights of fame," and Walter Mitty, a man who endures his ordinary life by escaping into fantasy.

The secret life of Walter Mitty

The greatest man in the world

Lanterns and Lances

At the helm of America's most influential literary magazine for more than half a century, Harold Ross introduced the country to a host of exciting talent, including Robert Benchley, Alexander Woolcott, Ogden Nash, Peter Arno, Charles Addams, and Dorothy Parker. But no one could have written about this irascible, eccentric genius more affectionately or more critically than James Thurber -- an American icon in his own right -- whose portrait of Ross captures not only a complex literary giant but a historic friendship and a glorious era as well. "If you get Ross down on paper," warned Wolcott Gibbs to Thurber," nobody will ever believe it." But readers of this unforgettable memoir will find that they do.

The Years with Ross

The Catbird Seat

A princesinha Letícia adoece, pois quer ter a lua. O rei, desesperado, pede ajuda a seus conselheiros. Mas só o Bobo da Corte encontra a solução.

Luas e luas

Men, Women and Dogs

Gathers humorous stories, essays, and drawings about the battle between the sexes, marriage, pets, and the trials of modern life

92 Stories

The Seal in the Bedroom and Other Predicaments

From iconic American humorist James Thurber, a celebrated and poignant memoir about his years at The New Yorker with the magazine’s unforgettable founder and longtime editor, Harold Ross “Extremely entertaining. . . . life at The New Yorker emerges as a lovely sort of pageant of lunacy, of practical jokes, of feuds and foibles. It is an affectionate picture of scamps playing their games around a man who, for all his brusqueness, loved them, took care of them, pampered and scolded them like an irascible mother hen.” —New York Times With a foreword by Adam Gopnik and illustrations by James Thurber At the helm of America’s most influential literary magazine from 1925 to 1951, Harold Ross introduced the country to a host of exciting talent, including Robert Benchley, Alexander Woollcott, Ogden Nash, Peter Arno, Charles Addams, and Dorothy Parker. But no one could have written about this irascible, eccentric genius more affectionately or more critically than James Thurber, whose portrait of Ross captures not only a complex literary giant but a historic friendship and a glorious era as well. "If you get Ross down on paper," warned Wolcott Gibbs to Thurber," nobody will ever believe it." But readers of this unforgettable memoir will find that they do. Offering a peek into the lives of two American literary giants and the New York literary scene at its heyday, The Years with Ross is a true classic, and a testament to the enduring influence of their genius.

A comprehensive collection of letters by the great American humorist chronicles his years as a reporter for the Columbus Dispatch, as well as his later career with The New Yorker and his relationships with E. B. White and Peter De Vries, among others. 15,000 first printing.

The Wit, Wisdom, and Surprising Life of James Thurber

The Thurber Letters

James Thurber es uno de los mejores humoristas americanos. Cuando Harold Ross, recién incorporado al “The New Yorker”, en 1927, le comentó al entonces joven colaborador James Thurber "todo el mundo cree dominar el inglés, pero nadie lo hace", poco podía imaginarse que estaba ante un escritor que iba a convertirse, al lado de nombres como Dorothy Parker o Truman Capote, en uno de los autores de referencia de la mítica revista neoyorkina. Observador milimétrico y narrador incansable, los relatos de Thurber nos divierten, nos arrastran, nos abren un claro de cielo por el que entrevemos, más allá de la ironía, las frustraciones del hombre moderno. “La vida secreta de Walter Mitty”, el más célebre de sus relatos que da título a nuestra selección, sirvió incluso para bautizar como "síndrome de Walter Mitty" la tendencia compulsiva a fantasear con la que algunos hombres se escapan -a su modo heroicamente- de la rígida y anodina cotidianidad de lo que convenimos en llamar “una vida normal”.

La Vida secreta de Walter Mitty

Gorgeously illustrated in a large-format album with two gatefolds and a stunning foldout of a jungle at war,The Tiger Who Would Be King is as entertaining as it is wise, as wry as it is passionate. Yoon's humorous images support this beautifully written text with wit and insight, playing up the comic elements, while showing the pathos as well.

James Thurber

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