James Thurber has been called "one of our great American institutions' (Stanley Walker), "a magnificent satirist (<I>Boston Transcript</I>), and "a Joyce in false-face" (<I>New York Times</I>). The <I>New York Herald Tribune</I> submits that he is "as blithe as Benchley...as savage as Swift...surprisingly wise and witty," while the <I>Times</I> of London, out of enthusiasm and a profound regard for truth, proclaims that "Thurber is Thurber." <P> In <I>Fables for Our Time</I>, Thurber the Moralist is in the ascendancy. Here are a score or more lessons-in-prose dedicated to conventional sinners and proving--what you will. The fables are imperishably illustrated, and are supplemented by Mr. Thurber's own pictorial interpretations of famous poems in a wonderful and joyous assemblage.