Narrative
My Life and Hard Times
James Thurber · 1933
Synopsis
A town in Ohio, from 1913 to the armistice: nine family stories. One night, the narrator's cot collapses on him; his mother thinks the big bed in the attic has fallen on the father, a cousin thinks he is suffocating, the father thinks there is a fire. Another night, policemen who have come to look for a ghost search the house, and the grandfather, who takes them for deserters from the Civil War, fires at one of them. The dog Muggs bites everyone except the mother, who sends sweets to the victims every Christmas. The town flees one day from the bursting of a dam that has not given way.
Context
The stories first appeared in eight instalments in the New Yorker in the summer of 1933, then in book form from Harper in November, with drawings by the author made in a few seconds; Thurber did not consider himself an artist. The book mixes autobiography and invention, as the grandfather who mistakes the police for Meade's army shows. Thurber returned to Columbus in 1952 with a book of portraits, better documented.
Who it is for
A short collection of linked stories, illustrated by the author. Translated into French by Jeanne Guyon in 2008.
Prizes and reception
A best-seller on publication, it is regarded as its author's best book, and for many readers his only undisputed masterpiece.
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