With its proximity to the cultural hub of New York City and its quieter suburban and rural landscapes, Connecticut was fertile ground for artists and writers in the period of Modernist movements between 1913 and 1979. Many of these cultural figures are well known through biographical and critical studies. Creative Places seeks to show how place played a significant role in creative work, and how in turn the artists and writers influenced communities in Connecticut.
James Thurber
Fiction, Journalism/Non-Fiction
1894 – 1961
Thurber had established himself in literary and journalism circles by the time he moved to Newtown. His creative output over the years at the house was strong, and here he wrote a humorous autobiographical piece, “My Life and Hard Times” in 1933, as well as a number of essays published in The New Yorker which riffed on married life and are thought to be about his wife Althea.
- Biography/Description of Work
One of America’s greatest humorists, Thurber began was drawn to journalism and theater at college, and began his career in 1920 at a newspaper. After attempting to make it on his own as a writer in New York in 1924 and subsequent difficulties, both personal and professional, Thurber began to work at the New York Evening Post in 1926. He continued to write and submitted to magazines such as The New Yorker, where he was hired as managing editor c.1928. He worked with E. B. White and the two co-authored “Is Sex Necessary?” in 1929. By then he and his wife Althea had rented a house in Silvermine as a city retreat, but with the impending arrival of their first child bought a Georgian farmhouse in Sandy Hook, Newtown, where they spent weekends and holidays. Here Thurber created a working space in the finished attic, and left his doodles and sketches on the walls. The couple divorced in 1935 and Thurber remarried; he moved to West Cornwall in 1945 with his second wife.
- Sources view
- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Thurber
http://thurberhouse.org/james-thurber.html, http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0862122/
James Thurber Article - New York Times - 1940-2-25, James Thurber Article - New York Times - 1947-12-15, James Thurber Article - New York Times - 1952-6-29, James Thurber Article - New York Times - 1965-4-18, James Thurber Article - New York Times - 1972-11-21, James Thurber Article - The Hartford Courant - 1945-2-11, James Thurber Article - The Hartford Courant - 1959-8-30, James Thurber Article - The Hartford Courant - 1961-11-5, James Thurber Article - The Hartford Courant - 1984-10-14, James Thurber Obituary - New York Times - 1961-11-3, James Thurber Obituary - The Hartford Courant - 1961-11-3
Ohno, Kate. 2007. Sanford-Curtis-Thurber House National Register Nomination, No. 07000557, National Park Service, http://pdfhost.focus.nps.gov/docs/NRHP/Text/07000557.pdf
James Thurber House website accessed 12/5/2014 at http://thurberhouse.org/james https://www.nytimes.com/1997/08/03/nyregion/finding-thurber-at-grandfather-s-house.html - Associated Resource(s)