Super Short Summary

My Life and Hard Times by James Thurber is a 1933 comical memoir detailing the eccentricities and unusual events surrounding young Thurber’s life in Columbus, Ohio. The narrative includes humorous accounts such as “The Night the Bed Fell,” where a misunderstanding leads to family chaos; “The Day the Dam Broke,” depicting town-wide panic over a false alarm; and “The Dog That Bit People,” featuring the misadventures of the family’s ill-tempered Airedale, Muggs. The memoir, complete with Thurber's illustrations, captures the quirks of his neurotic and deeply eccentric family through exaggerated, comedic anecdotes.