Widely hailed as one of the finest humorists of the twentieth century, James Thurber looks back at his own life growing up in Columbus, Ohio, with the same humour and sharp wit that characterised his sketches and writing. First published in 1933, My Life and Hard Times recounts the delightful chaos and frustrations of an eccentric family, boyhood, youth, odd dogs, recalcitrant machinery and the foibles of human nature.
James Thurber reflects on his university years and on his failed career as a wanderer in the Conradian tradition!
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Things seem to go bang in the night quite often in the Thurber household. And if that's not enough, there's also an irritable Airedale to deal with.
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A ghost and an assortment of peculiar servants join the wonderful cast of characters in the Thurber household.
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The day the dam broke was one of the most memorable of Thurber's childhood in Columbus, Ohio. But did it?
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James Thurber was born in 1894 and grew up in Columbus, Ohio. His journalistic career began at the Columbus Dispatch, and in 1927 he began working for the New Yorker, then -- as now -- home to some of the best humorous writing in the States. In his memoir Thurber looks back at his early life in Columbus with the same humour, wit and whimsy that he brought to his other writing. It recounts the delightful chaos and frustrations of an eccentric family and even more eccentric dogs, boyhood and youth, and the foibles of human nature.
For copyright reasons this reading is not available a podcast.
Weekdays 10:45 am, as part of The Book Show
Monday 24 November 2008
American humorist David Sedaris is known for his remarkable ability to uncover the hilarious absurdity teeming just below the surface of everyday life. And most often it's his own life that he mines for extraordinary comic effect. Whether it's buying his boyfriend a human skeleton, an encounter with a dingo or the effect on chaffinches of Donna Summer and Bonnie Raitt albums, David Sedaris never fails to amuse.
1pm AEDT
Counterpoint
with Michael Duffy
Because all great minds don't think the same...
