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Thurber Connection
written by Gazette Publisher Tom Thomson
January 2012

France Warms Writer's Heart

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Thurber’s love affair with France continued. He was working in Paris as a code clerk at the U.S. Embassy shortly after World War I ended. In 1919, he visited Rouen and was captivated by the entire province of Normandy. “The chimes are always chiming in Normandy,” he wrote in a letter to his good friend Elliott Nugent. Thurber soaked up the glorious autumn landscape and reveled in the “mossy manses, gray-stoned old castles, crumbling abbeys and fourteenth-century gabled houses.” On one occasion, he entered the dark and gloomy confines of the Church of St. Ouen. Gingerly he felt his way up a dark and narrow circular staircase lit only by candles.

When he arrived at the top, he peered downward through the gargoyle-bedecked parapet to the street. He confided in a letter to Nugent that he was so immersed in the historical atmosphere of the place that he could easily imagine he was back in the Middle Ages. He went on to elaborate: “I stared with some surprise at the people passing below in modern mufti, whereas I half expected to see feathered, drooping cavalier hats on swaggering blades, and the cleft mitres of gloomy bishops stalking in the gardens of the church below.”

Already, we can see Thurber’s mind fabricating material for literary creations to come. Here are the early seeds that might have sprouted into such works as Fables for our Time, The Owl in the Attic, and Lanterns & Lances. And, not to be forgotten is the invaluable role that his friend Elliott Nugent played in all of this. Looking back on those days, it is easy to see that Nugent was his sounding board, a fraternity pal who had connections not only to the New York theatre but to much of the writing and publishing community. So, in effect, when he was opening his heart up to Elliott and describing his experiences in great detail, he was not only practicing the craft of writing, he was apparently subconsciously participating in a form of peer review.

Thurber visited the Church of St. Gervais where he recorded that his footsteps “sounded like sabots in a silent street.” While in the cavernous old church (and in the same literary vein) he observed, “Candle tips of light flitted and danced gracefully in dark recesses as if balanced and juggled by some invisible sprite.”

Harrison Kinney, in his voluminous biography of Thurber, picks up on this when he writes: “His kaleidoscopic similes at times seemed as much the by-product of his unreliable eyes as of the sense of imagery that may have been influenced at the time by his fondness for the writing of Joseph Hergesheimer, a popular American novelist of the period.”

When he wasn’t seeing the sights in Paris and gadding about the French countryside, Thurber was doing a lot of letter writing. Much of it was to Elliott Nugent, but also to his family, especially to his brother Robert who frequently wrote back with the latest news of what was going on in Columbus, along with amusing antidotes about their mother and other family members.

Around this time, Thurber wrote to Eva Prout in Zanesville and sent her his Phi Psi fraternity pin. He begged her to wear it “as a symbol of betrothal.” What on earth was he thinking of? He hadn’t seen her for ten years! She responded that she didn’t think this was such a good idea. With a level head and a sense of practicality, she suggested they wait until they could talk it over in person. She also mentioned that she didn’t want to isolate herself socially. What she undoubtedly meant was she didn’t want to curtail her dating by wearing a guy’s frat pin.

As sooner or later happens to most young men, James Thurber lost his virginity – in his case in the fall of 1919 in Paris. Or, as he and Nugent referred to the act, he “stepped aside.” He was nearly 25 years old. It is noteworthy that he escaped such an experience during the several years he attended Ohio State University. There were probably opportunities, but his love affairs while in school never extended beyond “necking” and “petting.” Up to now, both he and Nugent had been guided by high ideals in their relationships with the women in their lives, a Jamesian influence in which they placed the women they dated on Platonic pedestals and “saved themselves” for marriage. In the process, many biographers have concluded that Thurber indulged himself in ridiculous fantasies of self-importance.

And, as it turned out, these lofty ideals led to a future swamped with antagonistic attitudes toward women – and became a source for some of his most brilliant humor.

Reprinted from the June 2002 issue.

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