Thurber House

 

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Shawnie K.

Columbus, OH

1/1/2009

I first encountered James Thurber while studying art history at Ohio State and fell in love with his writing style. Columbus is very fortunate to have been home to such a literary heavy weight. Anyone familiar with the New Yorker has inevitably heard of Thurber- the humorist, cartoonist, writer and dog lover.

There is very little I can add to the wonderful review written by Christina M, but wanted to write this to vouch for everything she says. It's a neat, well-maintained house museum, located in a relatively residential area near the Columbus College of Art and Design (CCAD). An absolute must for lovers of all things literary.

Aspiring writers will appreciate the unique resources available at the Thurber house, as well as the information on its website about annual writing workshops and conferences held both on site and around Columbus.

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Elite '09

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Christina M.

New York, NY

7/8/2008 5 photos

Dogs are certainly allowed at the James Thurber House in Columbus, OH.  Well, at least dogs carved in stone, dogs sketched on paper and dogs commemorated in the written word.  I think I learned about my literary soul mate when I visited the Thurber house and discovered that Jamie, as he was affectionately called, was tall, lean, lanky, a dog lover, humorist and illustrator/writer for "The New Yorker."  

It's definitely worth a visit to the Thurber House if you're in Columbus.  James lived here for four years while he attended Ohio State University.  The house is just covered in Thurber's dog sketches and the little book store is really cool, carrying many more dog products that you could have imagined.

If you're unfamiliar with his work, you might recognize the short story "The Secret Life of Walter Mitty" or the short story "The Catbird Seat."  He also wrote a story called "The Dog Who Bit People," about a dog who lived in the house and big so many visitors that the family began to keep a list of names each year (it once reached 40).  At Christmas Thurber's mother would then make fudge for each victim, to make up for the mishap.

The tour guides here are absolutely great.  Though the man I had will not be back because he's moving to Pittsburgh.  When we rolled up to the house, there was only one other car parked in the lot and the car was COVERED in cartoons from the funny pages.  Literally, they were just glued onto every inch of the car.  The inside of it was also draped with fuzzy comic strip blankets.  The tour guide's wife owned this vehicle, so clearly she has a passion for Thurber's craft.  Funny anecdotes about the Thurber family peppered our fact based tour.  Upstairs there is a small museum room with the goggles that Thurber wore to draw later in life.  He was blind in one eye from a childhood accident and as he got older, began to lose vision in the other eye.  

Another awesome part of the Thurber house is the sculpture garden outside where Thurber's dogs are sculpted out of stone and playing in the grass. One especially loved dog, "The Patient Bloodhound" was my favorite and I even bought a small print of it, along with a used copy of his book "Thurber's Dogs."  

I loved this whimsical, kooky place so much and was really happy to have learned about it in my book "Traveling Literary America."  The house also has a center next door where they run workshops for children and show art.  Upstairs in the Thurber House, artists in residence can live in the attic while they toil over their work.

Learn more about Thurber, his dogs, his fables and his contribution to American humor and art at The Thurber House!

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