Helen Thurber Acts As Her Husband’s “Eyes”

Press, Volume XCVIII, Issue 28822, 17 February 1959, Page 2

Helen Thurber Acts As Her Husband’s “Eyes”

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When James Thurber. America's best-loved humorist, became almost blind in 1941, people who knew him said: “How lucky he has Helen.” Mrs Thurber, who has modestly described herself as “the woman who puts the eyes on Jimmy's famous dog drawings,” was able to become her husband’s eyes as .well.

She: helped him with his writing and drawing and managed his business affairs as well as his home. She was so efficient that he was eventually turning out even more work than when he could see.

Mrs Thurber, a clergyman's daughter, was well-equipped for this new role. She was once the editor of a string of American magazines. Polls No Punches

“She is one of the finest proofreaders and critics I have ever known,” says her husband. “She has often rescued things I have thrown aside, and. if there is something she doesn’t like, she pulls .no punches. “Well, you know how it is when your wife is fight—you grouse around the house for a week, and then follow her advice.” The Thurbers met in the early 1930'5, when James was beginning to make a name for himself as a cartoonist and writer for the sophisticated American magazine the “New Yorker." “I found I could work better at night than during the day,” says Thurber, “so I arranged things so that I slept all day and worked all night It was an admirable arrangement but it made business contacts a little difficult” As soon as they were married, however, Mrs Thurber organised things so that her husband could concentrate on the creative side of his work and leave the routine

business in her hands. James Thurber, the creator of Walter Mitty, had trouble with his sight ever since the age of six when one of his brothers accidentally shot him in the left eye with an arrow. Totally Blind

He lost the sight of that eye and his other eye became affected some years later. A series of opertations restored its seeing power to only one-eighth of what it should have been. Now at "the age of 63 he is totally blind. He calls Helen his “blind-dog.” Every morning she reads his mail to him—he answers something like 1500 letters a year—and picks out extracts from newspapers, magazines and new books.

Thurber works every afternoon from -3 o’clock until 5. When he doidd see lust a little, he used to aerawl with soft pencils on sheets of bright yellow Paper, getting only about 20 words on a sheet Helen would read these scripts back to him and note any corrections he wanted to make, sentence by sentence. But now it is necessary to employ a qualified secretary. Someimes Thurber will re-write a >lece as many as nine times and t is a full-time job helping him. Although blind, the cartoonist still turns out an occasional dog's head for his friends. “It is quite easy,” he says, “I put my left thumb down on the paper and use it as a guide-post Helen puts in the' eyes, and blacks in the end of the nose.” z Helen is usually on hand lest her husband should need something, and she keeps the furniture precisely placed in their home so that he can find his way about easily. But his shins are scarred

HAZEL MEYRICK]

from striking with coffee tables in friends’ houses.' The Thurbers live in a whitepainted Colonial house surrounded by 60 acres of woodland at West Cornwall, Connecticut. They also own an apartment in New York, where they often stay during the winter months. Leads Him Everywhere “My wife leads me around everywhere,” says Thurber. "Sometimes she gets really exasperated with me, but that’s okay . . . beware of the woman who doesn’t get exasperated, for she doesn’t care any more.” It is easy for Helen to become exasperated, for, as Thurber admits, he is a difficult man to live with. “Occasionally I get mad at human beings, but there is nothing I can do about it. I like people and hate them at the same time.” The Thurbers are a well matched couple. He is tall, thin, inclined to be absent-minded and a little shy. She is small and vivacious—and has a voice like Zazu Pitts. While James alternates between deep gloom and elation, Helen remains, emotionally, on an even keel. Know What It’s Like She can understand her husband’s moods, for she knows exactly what it feels like to be threatened with blindness. In 1953 she nearly lost her own sight.

That year her sight suddenly began to fail and Thurber, who had relied on her eyes for the last 12 years, appealed to all news agencies and radio networks to find his eye specialist, Dr.' Gordon Bruce. x Dr. Bruce, who was touring Colorado, flew back to New York and an operation saved Helen’s sight

Thurber, who underwent five eye operations in 1940 and 1941, worried more about the one on his wife than he did about those on himself. He said afterwards: "She is my seeing-eye wife, who has led me around for years. I feel less panicky now.”