(1894–1961), American cartoonist and author, whose writings, which range from gentle whimsy to irony, gained him a place as one of America's greatest 20th-century humorists. Thurber's cartoons, often depicting melancholy-looking animals or oversized wives bedeviling undersized husbands, are also much admired.

Thurber was born on Dec. 8, 1894, in Columbus, Ohio. He attended Ohio State University, worked as a code clerk for the State Department, and then went to France, where he worked for the French editions of the Chicago Tribune. Moving to New York City in 1926, he was a reporter for the Evening Post. In 1927, Thurber took the post of staff writer and managing editor of The New Yorker; he continued as a contributor long after he left the magazine in 1933. Thurber was the author of many successful books. Is Sex Necessary? (1929) was written with E. B. White. It was followed by The Owl in the Attic and Other Perplexities (1931), My Life and Hard Times (1933), The Middle-Aged Man on the Flying Trapeze (1935), Let Your Mind Alone (1937), and Fables for Our Time (1940). The Male Animal (1940) is a play written with Elliott Nugent (1899–1980). The fantasies Many Moons (1943) and The White Deer (1945), illustrated with his own drawings, and The Thirteen Clocks (1950) and The Wonderful O (1957) are among his books for children. The Years with Ross (1959) is an account of his life at The New Yorker. Failing eyesight obliged him to give up cartooning in the last decade of his life. He died on Nov. 2, 1961, in New York City.

For further information on this person, see the section Thurber, James Grover.