The Thurber Letters : The Wit, Wisdom and Surprising Life of James Thurber

The books that Thurber wrote - with titles such as "My World and Welcome To It", "The Beast in Me and Other Animals", "My Life and Hard Times" and "The Secret Life of Walter Mitty" - were not only works of humour, but also offered glimpses into the author's own life.

As with most humorists though, Thurber employed exaggeration and good-natured self-deprecation, and so what glimpses of the writer's life we get are no more than distorted peeks into his mind and psyche.

Rather it is in his letters that Thurber offered some candid glimpses into who he really was, and why the prisms through which he viewed the world were so distorting. Thurber's letters trace his progress from immature, lovesick college boy to his last days battling illness.

His interesting and comic comments in his personal letters on all these events contribute to an entertaining, informal form of autobiography.