In My Life and Hard Times, Thurber returns to his starting pointthe delightful chaos and frustrations brought on by family, boyhood, youth, odd dogs, and recalcitrant machinery in the quiet university town of his birth.

This is one of the most deeply humorous books of our century. Not only is it a "memoir" that takes into account the crumbling of empires, it talks "largely about small matters and smally about great affairs." Mostly it is about the widely incredible things people do when they think they are acting sensibly. Yet Thurber does more than just tickle your funny bone. He has quietly and unobtrusively, but permanently, deflated your false pride in the essential sanity and prudence of the human race.