As the story ends, Mitty stands against a wall, smoking, and imagines himself facing a firing squad, 'inscrutable to the last.' While waiting for his wife, he picks up an old copy of Liberty, reading 'Can Germany Conquer the World Through the Air?', and begins his fourth daydream, as a Royal Air Force pilot volunteering for a daring suicide mission to bomb an ammunition dump.

Later, a newsboy shouting about the 'Waterbury Trial' begins Mitty's third fantasy, as a deadly assassin testifying in a courtroom. As he drives past a hospital, he imagines himself a magnificent surgeon performing a one-of-a-kind surgery. Mitty's complaint that Mitty is 'driving too fast'. Navy flying boat in a storm, followed by Mrs. During this time he has five heroic daydream episodes, each inspired by some detail of his mundane surroundings. The short story deals with a vague and mild-mannered man who drives into Waterbury, Connecticut, with his wife for their regular weekly shopping and his wife's visit to the beauty parlor. Warner in his autobiography My First Hundred Years in Hollywood, described the actor Errol Flynn in the following way: 'To the Walter Mittys of the world he was all the heroes in one magnificent, sexy, animal package.' The name Walter Mitty and the derivative word ' Mittyesque' have entered the English language, denoting an ineffectual person who spends more time in heroic daydreams than paying attention to the real world, or more seriously, one who intentionally attempts to mislead or convince others that he is something that he is not. It was also adapted into a 2013 film, which is again very different from the original.

It was made into a 1947 film of the same name, with Danny Kaye in the title role, though the film is very different from the original story. The story is considered one of Thurber's 'acknowledged masterpieces'. It has since been reprinted in James Thurber: Writings and Drawings (The Library of America, 1996, ISBN 1-88), is available on-line on the New Yorker website, and is one of the most anthologized short stories in American literature. The most famous of Thurber's stories, it first appeared in The New Yorker on March 18, 1939, and was first collected in his book My World and Welcome to It ( Harcourt, Brace and Company, 1942). ' The Secret Life of Walter Mitty' (1939) is a short story by James Thurber. Print ( Periodical, hardback and paperback) For the 2013 film, see The Secret Life of Walter Mitty (2013 film). For the 1947 film, see The Secret Life of Walter Mitty (1947 film). This article is about the original short story.

The secret life of james thurber