Guide to the James Thurber Family Collection

To request materials, please contact Thurber House staff by phone, at 614-464-1032, or by e-mail at thurberhouse@thurberhouse.org. Please include the Box Name and Folder Name for the materials requested. Staff will respond to requests within two weeks' time.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Overview of the Collection

Biography of James Thurber

Scope and Contents of the Collection

Organization of the Collection

Restrictions

Related Material

Administrative Information

Detailed Description of the Collection

Series I: Thurber Family Papers 1888-1975

Series II: James Thurber Correspondence and Personal Papers 1913-1980

Series III: James Thurber's Works 1918-1995

Series IV: Books 1904-2002

Series V: Awards, Honors and Dedications 1937-2000

Series VI: Oral History Transcripts 1972-1996

Series VII: Lewis Branscomb's Thurber Vignettes 1992-1996

Series VIII: Thurber House Presentations about James Thurber 1987-1988

Series IX: Thurber Collections at Other Institutions 1972-1993

Series X: News Media Clippings

Series XI: Ephemera 1902-1956

Series XII: Scrapbooks 1937-1950

Series XIII: Audiovisual Materials

Series XIV: Oversized Materials 1913-1996

Biography of James Thurber

Born December 8, 1894 in Columbus, Ohio, James Grover Thurber was the middle of Charles and Mary Agnes (Mame) Fisher Thurber's three sons. He attended Columbus public schools and entered Ohio State University in 1913.

After working as a code clerk at the Department of State in Washington, D.C. and at the American Embassy in Paris, France, from 1918 to 1920, Thurber returned to Columbus, where he worked as a reporter for the Columbus Dispatch from 1921 to 1924. For a time, Thurber covered current books, films, and plays in "Credos and Curios," his weekly column for the Dispatch.

After marrying Althea Adams in 1922, Thurber and his wife returned to Paris, where he wrote articles for the Chicago Tribune and other newspapers. In 1925, the Thurbers moved to New York, where he wrote full-time for The New Yorker until 1933 and remained as a regular contributor to the magazine until his death in 1961. In 1929, he collaborated with fellow New Yorker contributor E.B. White on Is Sex Necessary? The Years With Ross (1959) not only is an informal biography of Harold Ross, founder and editor of The New Yorker, but also chronicles Thurber's three decades as a New Yorker contributor.

Thurber's only child, daughter Rosemary, was born October 7, 1931. In June 1935, Thurber married Helen Wismer.

Losing an eye in a childhood accident, Thurber later developed a progressive condition in his remaining eye that eventually caused blindness. Despite this handicap, Thurber continued to work as a popular cartoonist and humorist, writing books for children and adults, plays, screenplays and poetry. Best-known for his stories about middle-class domestic situations, Thurber's writings focus on the conflict between the sexes and everyday life. First recording his family memories in My Life and Hard Times (1933), Thurber's best-known work includes Thurber Carnival, My World - And Welcome To It, "The Secret Life of Walter Mitty", "The Unicorn in the Garden", and "The Night the Bed Fell".

Throughout his career, Thurber was recognized with a number of awards. Many Moons was named as a Caldecott Honor Book in 1944. In 1946, he received the Ohioana Book Award from the Martha Kinney Cooper Ohioana Library Association for The White Deer. Thurber received the Martha Kinney Cooper Ohioana Library Association's Sesquicentennial Career Medal (1953); the American Cartoonists Society's T-Square Award (1956); the American Library Association's Library and Justice Award (1957) for Further Fables for Our Time; and the Antoinette Perry ( "Tony") Special Award for Thurber Carnival (1960).

On October 3, 1961, Thurber suffered a stroke at his home in New York City. While in the hospital, he developed pneumonia, passing away on November 2, 1961. He is buried in Greenlawn Cemetery in Columbus, Ohio.

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Scope and Contents of the Collection

The James Thurber Family Collection in the Thurber House archives contains unique manuscript material, scrapbooks, and personal photographs belonging to James Thurber and his family. Additionally, Thurber House's extensive collection of sheet music, sports ephemera, phonograph records, and printed material provide a valuable context for understanding Thurber's era.

The majority of this collection was donated to Thurber House by Robert Thurber, James' brother, and Rosemary Thurber, James' daughter. Volunteers and friends of Thurber House have also added to the collection. Julia Gardiner Hadley donated some of the collection's news media clippings, theatre programs and cards from Helen Thurber. A longtime friend of Mrs. Hadley's parents, Ted and Julia Gardiner, Thurber dedicated The Wonderful O to the Gardiner family. Lewis Branscomb, professor emeritus of Thurber studies at The Ohio State University and board member emeritus of Thurber House, provided materials documenting oral histories of Thurber contemporaries and Thurber House's 1988 productions, "James Thurber's Columbus" and "Jim Thurber and Good Old Columbus Town."

Family letters are a strong component of this collection. A portion of an 1888 letter from Thurber's father, Charles, to his mother, Mame Fisher, in the collection appears in Thurber's "Gentleman from Indiana," a eulogy to his father that Thurber published in a 1951 issue of The New Yorker and included in The Thurber Album. Copies of over 120 letters Thurber wrote to his family between 1947 and 1961 provide insight into Thurber's travels, his requests for family details and sports facts to include in his work, and his relationships with family and friends.

The collection documents the fondness James and his second wife, Helen, had for traveling. An album from their travels in Europe and Bermuda during 1936 and 1937 includes photographs and postcards of local landmarks, cancelled postage stamps, informal snapshots of the Thurbers, and pressed flowers and plants. Hotel and restaurant receipts and menus provide additional details about this extensive trip. Helen's three-ring notebook, "Helen and James Thurber, Litchfield, Connecticut," includes calendars of events, general information, reading lists, newspaper clippings, and recommendations from friends about what the Thurbers planned to see in France, England, Wales, Scotland, Ireland, Scandinavia, Belgium, Holland, Italy, Austria, Hungary, Switzerland, Czechoslovakia, and Romania.

Helen's mother, Mary Wismer, also documented the Thurbers' travels and accomplishments in scrapbooks. Photographs, postcards from Helen to her mother, and telegrams offer insights into travel itineraries and gardening interests. Other scrapbooks containing newspaper clippings, advertisements, best-seller lists, and reviews record the public's reception to Thurber's work, such as The Thurber Carnival, The White Deer, The Male Animal, and The 13 Clocks.

Researchers can trace the development of Thurber's writing style through the collection. Thurber's early work for The Ohio State University's Scarlet Mask Club and the Sundial is represented in the collection, as are his contributions to The New Yorker and other national publications. Thurber House's extensive collection of Thurber's books, including those published in foreign languages, provide additional insight into his prolific contributions as an author. Several of these books are inscribed in Thurber's hand to friends like Herman Miller, an English professor at The Ohio State University, and his wife, Dorothy. Details about the drawings Thurber made on the walls of Tim Costello's restaurant in New York and a private Connecticut home can also be found in the collection. Programs and photographs from local and national productions document Thurber's work as a playwright. Moreover, the collection also includes 14 drawings of Michael Reiss's original scenery designs for the 1960 world premiere of "A Thurber Carnival" at the Hartman Theatre in Columbus, Ohio.

The collection also illustrates public recognition of Thurber's talents. A transcript records Rosemary Thurber's 1973 Ohio State University lecture about her father, while audio recordings of Thurber scholars provide additional perspectives on Thurber's literary contributions. Catalogs document posthumous exhibits of Thurber's work. Programs from Thurber House's commemoration of the first day of issue of the 1994 James Thurber postage stamp, Thurber's 1995 honorary degree from The Ohio State University, and a number of other honorary degrees and awards Thurber received are also included in the collection. Thurber House's collection of museum objects also includes the academic hoods Thurber received for these honorary degrees. Organized chronologically by decade, news media coverage of Thurber and his work offers researchers an opportunity to further document Thurber's contributions as a major literary figure of the 20th century.

Oral history transcripts and audiotapes provide rich accounts from Thurber's contemporaries about his days in Columbus, his personality, and other details offering insights into his life. News media clippings document public reception to Thurber's works and report on his personal and professional activities.

The collection also records popular culture of Thurber's era. Sheet music spanning the years from 1901 to 1930 invites study of graphic design trends, verse, and popular melodies of the time. Ephemera collected by avid sports fan Robert Thurber records significant early 20th century sporting events. Baseball-related ephemera include an official program from the Yankees/Dodgers 1956 World Series game; pages 31 and 33 are annotated with scoring records. Clippings of championship baseball teams and printed copies of individual photographs of players from the Pittsburgh Pirates, the Chicago White Sox, the Los Angeles Angels, and the Milwaukee Braves, ca. 1959-1961, as well as the 1961 Cincinnati Reds, can also be found in the collection.

Robert's Ohio State University football and basketball ephemera includes a copy of Kuenning's Midtown Restaurant menu, featuring a cover drawing of Woody Hayes and printed autographs of the 1960 Buckeye football squad, a laminated 1957-1958 Ohio State Rose Bowl souvenir book cover, and printed photographs of the 1960-1963 Ohio State basketball teams. Robert's boxing and tennis ephemera includes a copy of an article reporting on the Dempsey/Tunney "Long Count Fight" from the November 1927 issue of The Ring, a boxing magazine.

Robert also amassed a large number of athletic photographs, such as reproductions of photographs of Knute Rockne, Gus Dorias and other Notre Dame football players from 1913, the 1935 OSU football team, the Michigan State/Notre Dame football game, circa 1953, the 1958 OSU football team, signed by assistant coach Ernie Godfrey, and a 1931 lacrosse game at Stevens Institute in Hoboken, New Jersey.

The collection concludes with audiovisual materials documenting recordings of Thurber's work, events commemorating Thurber's accomplishments, and reflections on Thurber's life.

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Organization of the Collection

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Restrictions

Restrictions on Access

Before viewing any part of the James Thurber Family Collection, researchers must make an appointment with a Thurber House staff member. Items in the collection must remain in the Thurber House archives room, under supervision of Thurber House staff.

Restrictions on Use

Publication rights: All rights reside with the rights holder. All permissions must be obtained from the appropriate rights holder.

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Related Material

Most of James Thurber's papers are housed in The Ohio State University's Rare Books and Manuscripts Library. Named James Thurber Papers, 1884-1972 (call number SPEC.CMS.4), the collection includes literary manuscripts, background materials collected for writings, correspondence, original drawings, photographs, tapes and transcripts of interviews with family and associates, scrapbooks, clippings, and some juvenilia. A correspondence index and card file are available in the library. For more information about this non-circulating collection, see the OSU Libraries catalog, contact the library at (614) 292-5938, or visit the Rare Books and Manuscripts Library web site. Ohioana Library also maintains copies of books by and about James Thurber, together with a biographical file on Thurber culled from Ohio publications and major newspapers. To view these non-circulating materials, contact Ohioana Library at (614) 466-3831 or visit the Ohio Public Library Information Network.

Administrative Information

Preferred Citation

Researchers are requested to cite The James Thurber Family Collection and Thurber House in all footnote and bibliographic references.

Processing Information

Collection processed by Betsy Butler, December 2003-February 2004.

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Detailed Description of the Collection

To request materials, please contact Thurber House staff by phone, at 614-464-1032, or by e-mail at thurberhouse@thurberhouse.org. Please include the Box Name and Folder Name for the materials requested. Staff will respond to requests within two weeks' time.