Most Popular Books by James Thurber

When he finds himself in serious trouble with the police on a stolen car charge, fifteen-year-old Johnny Pierce tries to analyze the reasons for his predicament.

"Tommy Turner has been married for ten years to Ellen, and he is quietly settled in a teaching job at Mid Western University. This is the week end of the Michigan game and Joe Ferguson, the greatest football hero Mid Western has ever had, comes to town and sees Ellen, his old sweetheart. In addition, Tommy is drawn into a controversy when a young intellectual writes an article in which he calls the board of trustees fascists. Tommy wants to read a letter to his composition class written by Vanzetti and is about to join the ranks of the martyrs who have been fired because the trustees are shouting "Red!" Ellen tries to dissuade Tommy from reading the letter and he tells her to go with Joe and leave him to his books and his principles. Eventually Tommy challenges Joe to fisticuffs after he has fortified himself with the proper courage. He steadfastly maintains his right to read the letter and to teach the young to think. Ellen sees him as pretty good example of the male animal and stands up with him." -- Publisher''s description.

Stories and drawings by the longtime New Yorker humorist that celebrate man''s best friend. Thurber''s unpoetic dogs, with their expressive ears and baffled faces, surprise us with a vision of our sloppy selves.

Is Sex Necessary? Or, Why You Feel the Way You Do (1929) is a brilliant satirical work that humorously dissects the popular psychological and social theories about sex, love, and human behavior prevalent in the early twentieth century. Written by E. B. White and James Thurber, the book adopts the tone of a mock scientific study, complete with absurd charts, invented terminology, and tongue-in-cheek definitions. Rather than offering genuine explanations, the authors parody the era''s obsession with analyzing emotions through pseudo-scientific language. Topics such as romance, neurosis, marriage, passion, repression, and gender relations are treated with elegant irony and playful exaggeration. The humor lies in exposing how attempts to rationalize feelings often lead to confusion rather than clarity. The book does not aim to answer whether sex is "necessary" in any serious sense; instead, it mocks the cultural impulse to intellectualize what is fundamentally emotional and irrational. With sharp wit and understated elegance, White and Thurber critique modern society''s faith in psychology as a universal explanatory tool. Enduringly fresh, Is Sex Necessary? remains a classic of American humor, celebrated for its intelligence, restraint, and timeless commentary on human relationships and emotional bewilderment.

Walter Mitty is an ordinary man living an ordinary life. But he has dreams - vivid, extraordinary day dreams - in which the life he leads is one of excitement and even adventure, in which he - a weary, put upon middle-aged man - is the hero of his own story. A man can dream, can''t he? The Secret Life of Walter Mitty is just one of the brilliant humorous and witty stories written by James Thurber and collected here.

Gathers previously uncollected cartoons and humorous stories.