Thurber published hundreds of short stories and essays during his career, and while he was one of the few writers to be widely admired both by the critics and by the general public, there is little serious criticism of his work.

"The Catbird Seat" was one of four stories Thurber published in 1942, and it was included in the volume Best American Short Stories of 1943. Thurber liked the story, and chose it for the 1945 retrospective collection of his best work, The Thurber Carnival.

The Thurber Carnival was widely reviewed. Critic and editor William Rose Benét, writing in The Saturday Review of Literature, praised the book's humor and handling of psychology, and called it "one of the absolutely essential books of our time."

A reviewer for the London

Times Literary Supplement