a monument to an airedale

Renate Fackler. Muggs Thurber. unveiled August 28, 2021. Columbus.

Thurber's drawing of Muggs

This is a cenotaph. Muggs was buried by Thurber in a forgotten ditch in 1928.

James Thurber was a writer, humourist, and cartoonist. He lost an eye as a child, and his vision continued to deteriorate. He went to Ohio State, and was refused graduation. A mandatory ROTC class disqualified him on account of his eyesight. He was given a degree, thirty-four years posthumously.

 

He wrote an essay, “The Dog That Bit People”. It ends:

Muggs died quite suddenly one night. Mother wanted to bury him in the family lot under a marble stone with some such inscription as “Flights of angels sing thee to thy rest” but we persuaded her it was against the law. In the end we just put up a smooth board above his grave along a lonely road. On the board I wrote with an indelible pencil “Cave Canem.” Mother was quite pleased with the simple classic dignity of the old Latin epitaph.