James Thurber was born in Columbus, Ohio, in 1894. Famous for his humorous writings and illustrations, he was a staff member of The New Yorker for more than thirty years. He died in 1961.
"""[An] extremely entertaining memoir. . . . life at The New Yorker emerges as a lovely sort of pageant of lunacy, of practical jokes, of feuds and foibles. It is an affectionate picture of scamps playing their games around a man who, for all his brusqueness, loved them, took care of them, pampered and scolded them like an irascible mother hen."" -- New York Times ""It is Thurber's book The Years with Ross that every journalist should have. It chronicles the restless genius and sometimes frustrating ways of legendary New Yorker editor Harold Ross, who brought together an extraordinary cavalcade of talent (including Thurber) but somehow managed to keep his cast of divas productive. . . . Most of all, the book captures the fun of inventing the perfect magazine during journalism's heyday."" -- NPR ""Endlessly entertaining."" -- Chicago Tribune ""A perfectly wonderful reminiscence about one of the most intriguing personalities in the literary world by one of the best writers of our time."" -- Los Angeles Times ""Superb. . . . [a] revealing portrait of Harold Wallace Ross, the unbelievable founder and editor of The New Yorker."" -- New York Herald Tribune"