Many have called him the greatest American humorist since Mark Twain. At the local level his legend far surpasses even that of Woody Hayes, at least among writers.

James Thurber, famous for his simplistic drawings of battles between men and women in the New Yorker, as well as his stories, memoirs, fables, plays, essays and so on, was born in Columbus on Dec. 8, 1894 and lived in the city until his late twenties.

Some people are from Columbus, and then there are those that are ‘from’ Columbus. “Thurber was ‘from’ Columbus,” said James Tootle, official archivist for the Thurber House.

In 1953, when awarded the Ohioana Sesquicentennial Medal, Thurber wrote in a speech which was read in his absence, “The clocks that strike in my dreams are often the clocks of Columbus.”

His longtime friend and collaborator E.B. White said in Thurber’s obituary the phrase was one of his finest and most revealing.

Thurber had a love/hate relationship with OSU in his later years. In 1951 he refused an honorary degree from OSU to protest academic censorship. He was later awarded the university’s first ever posthumous doctorate in 1995.

David Citino, OSU’s poet laureate and a member of the Thurber House board of trustees, was involved in the ceremony and said it was a loose-end that needed to be tied up.

Thurber enrolled as a student at OSU in 1913. It was the era of Chic Harley, OSU’s first great football player, who attended East High School in Columbus just a few years after Thurber. Thurber often criticized OSU’s preoccupation with football. However, he was always a fan.

Later in his life, Thurber tried to schedule his visits around home games and even wrote a play with classmate and longtime friend Elliot Nugent, set around a homecoming football game against Michigan at a Midwestern university based on Ohio State. The play, “the Male Animal,” opened in 1940, and eventually made it to Broadway and was adapted to film.

During his first year at OSU, Thurber attained high marks. However, being a ‘townie’ and shy, he did not fit in well socially and was rejected from fraternities. He returned to school in the fall of his sophomore year, but, unbeknownst to his family, failed to attend.

Thurber returned to OSU the following year, but was often truant and avoided military drill, a required course at the time, which prevented a lengthy stay. He was reinstated the next fall when President William Oxley Thompson recommended him.

Thurber dropped out again in 1918 to help the war effort, spending a little over a year in Paris.

When he returned to Columbus he became involved with the campus theater group Scarlet Mask and was hired by the Columbus Dispatch before graduating.

Although his academic record appears flawed because he did not actually graduate from OSU, this fact is only one percent of the story, Tootle said. In fact, Thurber probably walked away with a better education than most, he said. Thurber was highly involved, writing for The Lantern as well becoming editor of the “Sun-Dial,” the campus humor magazine.

Some of his later writings expose Thurber’s level of engagement at OSU and with its faculty. In his two memoirs set in Columbus, “My Life and Hard Times” and the “Thurber Album,” he describes his days with professors such as Joseph Taylor, for whom Taylor Tower is named, and Joseph Denney, who named Denney Hall. The guidance of these two men, among others, remained with Thurber for years to come.

Thurber died in New York on Nov. 2, 1961. His ashes are buried in Green Lawn Cemetery in Columbus.

OSU’s library of Rare Books and Manuscripts houses the world’s central location of Thurber material. It is the primary collection within the library, and anyone who is researching Thurber must begin there, said Elva Griffith, an administrative assistant at the library.

The Thurber House at 77 Jefferson Ave. in Columbus was Thurber’s home for much of the time he attended OSU and the setting of some of his more memorable stories. Today it acts as a museum and an active literary center, sponsoring readings and seminars. The house also promotes the enduring spirit of Thurber and his humor, giving out the Thurber Prize for American Humor every other year.

Although it has been many years since Thurber made his last visit to Columbus, he is still etched into the hearts and minds of those who knew him.

“I can still see him as clear as day; he was striking; handsome,” said Julia Hadley, whose father was a close friend of Thurber’s.

When visiting his family in Columbus, Thurber would stop by the house of Hadley’s parents in Upper Arlington and a party would ensue. The family had an unfinished attic where they would draw cartoons on the wallboard, and whenever Thurber came over he would contribute. The drawings are now part of the Thurber collection at OSU.

“I hero-worshipped him,” said Hadley, who was included in Thurber’s dedication of his book “The Wonderful O.” “I sat and listened to everything he said. He was the only genius I’ve ever known.”

Former director of OSU Libraries Lewis Branscomb learned a great deal about Thurber during his tenure, occasionally encountering him and his family.

“It was the combination of his wit and humanity,” Branscomb said. “That impressed me more than anything.”