As early as 1919, his friend and collaborator E. B. White wrote that "These 'Thurber men' have come to be recognized as a distinct type in the world of art; they are frustrated, fugitive beings; at times they seem vaguely striving to get out of something without being seen (a room, a situation, a state of mind), at other times they are merely perplexed and too humble, or weak, to move." The characters in his work seem headed toward some final darkness, a tendency symbolized in the title of his last book published in his lifetime,
Lanterns & Lances (1961). The lances pierce out the eyes that see the light of humor, but it is not all darkness. The lanterns often continue to shine all the way through a Thurber piece, and in his best work the lances serve as poles to raise the lanterns high. Some of the greatest moments in modern American humor are those in which his characters hold both, but use the lanterns instead of lances.
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