The Catbird Seat Summary
James Thurber

The Catbird Seat Summary

First published in the November 14, 1942, issue of the New Yorker, "The Catbird Seat" also appeared in Thurber's 1945 collection, The Thurber Carnival. Since that time, the story has been published in dozens of anthologies for high school and college students, and Thurber has been called America's most important twentieth-century humorist.

The story chronicles a battle of wills between the fussy Erwin Martin, head of a filing department, and Ulgine Barrows, the firm's efficiency expert...

(read more from the Study Guide)