(continued)

1935:
After several years of difficulty and separations, James and Althea divorce in May; James marries Helen Wismer, an editor, in June.

1936:
James and Helen move to Connecticut. Thurber leaves The New Yorker staff officially in order to freelance, but keeps a contractual agreement for his writing with the magazine.

1937–38:
Helen and James travel abroad in France and England. Thurber has a one-man show of his drawings at the Storran Gallery in London.

1939–40:
Thurber collaborates with college buddy Elliot Nugent on The Male Animal, a play about Ohio State, which was an enormous success on Broadway with 243 performances in the 1939-40 season.

1942:
By now, Thurber has serious eye problems and uses the Zeiss loupe in order to continue drawing. The Thurbers briefly move back to New York.

1944:
Thurber's overall health begins to decline. He is critically ill with pneumonia and appendicitis this year.

1945:
James and Helen move into "The Great Good Place," a 14-room Colonial style home in West Cornwall, Connecticut.

1950:
Thurber receives his first honorary doctorate, a Doctor of Letters Degree from Kenyon College in Ohio. A second honorary doctorate is bestowed upon Thurber from William's College in Massachusetts.

1951:
Thurber declines the honorary Doctor of Letters degree from his alma mater, Ohio State, in protest over its suppression of academic freedom during the reign of the House Un-American Activities Committee.

1953:
Thurber is awarded a third honorary Doctor of Letters from Yale University. He also receives the Ohioana Sesquicentennial Medal. Thurber's health continues to fail as a thyroid condition causes erratic behavior.

1958:
Thurber returns to England to become the first American since Mark Twain to be called "to the table" at Punch.

1960:
Thurber appears in eighty-eight performances as himself in A Thurber Carnival, a revue based on his writings and drawings and produced at the ANTA Theatre in New York.

1961:
Thurber is stricken with a blood clot in his brain in early October in New York. He dies a month later on November 2. His ashes are interred at Greenlawn Cemetery in Columbus, Ohio, plot 50.

Thurber Posthumously

1972:
Thurber Theatre is dedicated at Ohio State's Drake Union.

1984:
The Thurber House, located in what was James's home during his college years, opens as a literary arts center and museum of Thurber materials.

1994:
Thurber becomes the first Columbus native to be featured on a US Postal Service commemorative stamp (three months from the 100th anniversary of his birth.)

1995:
Thurber receives the first ever posthumous Doctor of Humane Letters degree from his alma mater, The Ohio State University. His daughter Rosemary accepts.

1 | 2