by James Thurber

Born in Columbus, Ohio, James Thurber (1894-1961) moved to New York in 1926, where he worked as a reporter, writer, editor, and cartoonist. The unknown Thurber began sending his stories and humorous essays to a new and equally unknown magazine in the city, the New Yorker. Like most young authors, he suffered the disappointment of multiple rejections, but eventually his work and tenacity ended with the sale of his short story "An American Romance" to the discriminating magazine in 1927. Following the sale, the New Yorker's founder, Harold Ross, offered Thurber a position on the magazine staff. Thurber left the staff in 1933, remaining a contributor to the magazine, the original publisher of his story "The Secret Life of Walter Mitty." The story comments on the average man's unattainable dreams of grandeur which, when coupled with common stress...