James Thurber (1894-1961) has been called
"the greatest American humorist since Mark Twain"

he is best known for The Secret Life of Walter Mitty (1939),
a short story about a timid, henpecked man who often escapes
into heroic fantasies

Thurber's writing and cartoons are edgy and absurdist:
he places odd people in strange situations; highlighting
the stresses and frustrations of modern life -

as in the video below, based on Thurber's A Box To Hide In