Word: thurberism
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: during 1960-1969
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
ALMOST nobody writes humorous essays any more, perhaps because the world has become too serious a place. Robert Benchley is gone, and James Thurber is gone, but S.J. Perelman comes forth periodically to reassure us that the art is not yet dead...
...course, Perelman is not quite like the others. His humor is subtler, his vocabulary larger, his style more sophisticated; and the weird world he inhabits is a creation all his own. But he is like Benchley and Thurber in that he is funny. Perelman is quite probably the funniest man around...
...sense, Gleason's sudden achievements should not be as surprising as they seem. For unlike such masters of the oneline gag as Bob Hope and Mort Sahl, he bases his humor on the creation of comic characters-most of them acted by himself. And as the late James Thurber liked to remark, such comedy may be amusing, but it is also serious commentary on human life. "Gleason has gorgeous creative juices," says Requiem's Producer David Susskind with purple accuracy. "He is a thundering talent-the kind of raw, brilliant talent that has gone out of style, with...
Children and adults who are up to 256 pages will find sophisticated whimsy in The Phantom Tollbooth, by Norton Juster (Epstein & Carroll; $3.95), which leads a vagrant young Ulysses on an unaccountable world detour to the Island of Conclusions. Jules Pfeiffer's illustrations fall between Thurber and Searle, but still enhance the best juvenile buy of the season...
...fuddled dogs and all. Pessimism was for a man less wise, but wariness was only good sense. "The world is so full of a number of things, I am sure we should all be as happy as kings," he quoted at the end of one of his fables. Being Thurber, and wary, he added, "And you know how happy kings...