Thurber : A Biography [Paperback]

Burton Bernstein (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: May 1996

In life, James Thurber called himself "a wide-eyed son of a bitch with a glass in his hand". Here, in Burton Bernstein's indispensable biography, readers learn how the famed New Yorker humorist and columnist changed from a shy, handicapped Ohioan to the tormented man be became. The author will be featured on a PBS documentary on Thurber this spring. 27 line illustations.

Product Details

• Paperback: 532 pages
• Publisher: William Morrow & Co (May 1996)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0688147720
• ISBN-13: 978-0688147723
• Product Dimensions: 9.2 x 6 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.6 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 1.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #3,940,454 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Discover books, learn about writers, read author blogs, and more.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars If You Value Your Eyesight & Stellar Writing, Instead, Just Read Thurber, September 1, 2010

By 

Don Reed "Don" (Cliffside Park NJ) - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Thurber : A Biography (Paperback)

"Thurber, A Biography," Burton Bernstein; William Morrow & Co., Inc. (1975; "First Quill Edition" Paperback 1996)


I received, after ordering, the "First Quill Edition" of "Thurber" (although, oddly, you won't find that year of publication anywhere on its copyright page).

Discovered in the NYT archives: "New & Noteworthy Paperbacks... July 14, 1996... THURBER: A Biography, by Burton Bernstein (Quill/Morrow, $16), just restored to print."

Fortunately, my copy was obtained via Amazon for a lot less than $16.00 - because anyone who paid full price for "Thurber," either in 1996 or in later years, flat-out got robbed.

The robbery crime-scene photo reveals a triple dead-heat, illustrating:

A) Bernstein's pedestrian purple prose:

"[Thurber's] scrupulously guarded virginity, hidden for so long on that lofty pedestal where American Womanhood dwelled, was surrendered to a semi-professional demimondaine, a Folies Bergeres dancer named Ninette, & was erased with yet another."

Proof that allegedly sophisticated New Yorker magazine writers were paid by major publishers (William Morrow Co., Inc.) to create dorky sentences such as:

"He wasn't exactly every comely coed's dish of ice cream."

(For this reason, also steer clear of the 1975 hardcover edition. Ignore at your financial peril, "illustrator, caricaturist, cartoonist and graphic designer" Ed Sorel's recommendation to "see Burton Bernstein's superb biography" - NY Times, November 5, 1989.)

And the author's epic-length-of-sentence verbosity...

In an eleven-line sentence (not "paragraph") on p. 159, one beleaguered segment reads as follows:

"The creator of the most sophisticated, witty magazine in the English-speaking world who often missed the point of some of its most sophisticated, witty pieces and cartoons..."

Without steroids:

"The creator of the most sophisticated magazine in the English-speaking world who often missed the point of its sophistication and wit..."

What competent editor - presented with this Wolff-sized manuscript (confiscate Bernstein's pencils!) - failed to get his Adjective-Weed-Whacker out of storage?

(Now you have two good reasons not to buy the original 1975 edition.)

*****

B) Bernstein's decision to include, in the first 159 pages, verbatim transcripts of endless Thurber letters - either written in his immaturity (turgid), or later ones that identically do not qualify for publication in their entirety (because good biographers know what to cut).

(These can be found on pages 63-on; 66-69; 70-72; 72-76; 86-87; 88-91; 97-101; 101-107; 118-on; 126-128; 143-145; and 155-157, which is about where the mercy rule was invoked and the book was pulped.)

This might have something to do with the resulting length of the book (532 pages) - although if the publisher hadn't decided to reprint these letters in ILLEGIBLE, contract-fine-print-size type, we might have topped out at 750 pages.

Make that 800 - if we had also expanded the "asterisked-information," at the bottom of various pages, to legible type (as is, impossible to read).

What follows usually doesn't matter.

But given all of the above, let's note that the footnote numbers -

Which should be minimal in size & elevated slightly above regular text -

Were the same size as the regular text & positioned on the same horizontal level with the regular text -

And clumsily separated from all the rest by the use of parenthesis.

This created the ludicrous visual impression of a beach-goer who - too cheap to rent a reasonably-priced cabana - is hiding in the dunes while awkwardly changing into his swim trunks.

Maybe I'm overreacting to the "legibility factor" fiasco.

Tomorrow's Debate Subject: Is it unreasonable to expect competent publishing standards exhibited by a publisher selling a biography of a writer, whose failing eyesight and ultimate blindness was the key factor in the tragic circumstances of the last years of his life?

*****

C) The cheap quality of the paper on which the book was printed had half the tensile strength of Kleenex.

Highlighting ink bled right though to the other side of the page.

The benefit to the customer was that pulping the book after writing the review was even easier than anticipating the tired punch lines of a Jay Leno monologue.

*****

It is sobering to realize that this may be the only instance in Amazon's history where - if even the retailer or the post office had delivered a mangled, unreadable book - all parties concerned, but especially this buyer, would have just been better off.