CLEMENS, SAMUEL LANGHORNE, born 1835. A true citizen of the
United States, he began at the bottom of the ladder and has
worked his way to the top. After receiving a meagre education at
a village school, he was apprenticed to a printer at the age of
thirteen, and for three years "stuck type." In 1851 he took to
the Mississippi, earning his living as a pilot, and later on tried
mining and editing. Under the pseudonym "Mark Twain" he
began to publish the work which has earned for him the right to
be considered the greatest humorous writer of the century. The
Jumping Frog and other Sketches was his first book, appearing
in 1867, and this he has followed with a splendid line of successes
down to The American Claimant, which has just appeared.
Messrs. Chatto & Windus publish his works in England, and
Webster & Co. in America.
CLIFTON, WILLIAM (1772-1799), a satirical writer of prose and verse.
Author of The Group, The Rhapsody of the Times, and an
unfinished poem,
"Chimeriad."
COTES, MRS. E. C., "SARAH JEANNETTE DUNCAN" (1863). Miss
Duncan, a native of Brantford, Ontario, Canada, did her first
literary work on the Toronto Globe, and, after occupying positions
on the staff of the Globe and Washington Post, spent a session at
Ottawa as special correspondent of the Montreal Star. This news-
paper training is clearly shown in her two clever books, A Social
Departure and An American Girl in London. The first is an
original and wholly unconventional account of travel, telling how
she, in company with another girl, went round the world. The
other book is an equally bright description of her doings in
London.
COX, SAMUEL SULLIVAN ("Sunset Cox "), born 1824, and died 1889.
A lawyer, journalist, and politician. He served the United States
as diplomatist in Peru and Turkey, and wrote and spoke much
that was witty. He published The Buck-Eye Abroad, Why We
Laugh, A Search for Winter Sunbeams, Arctic Sunbeams, Orient
Sunbeams, and The Isles of the Princes-the last three bright and
laughable accounts of his travels in many lands. They are pub-
lished by G. P. Putnam's Sons, New York and London.
Cox, WILLIAM, died about 1851. Author of Crayon Sketches. He
wrote under the pseudonym "An Amateur.”
Cozzens, Frederick Swartout (1818-1869), author of The Sayings
of Dr. Bushwhacker and other Learned Men, and The Sparrowgrass
Papers. A genuine humorist and graceful writer. Some of his
work was published under the pen-name "Richard Haywarde.”
CURTIS, GEORGE WILLIAM (1824-1892). As the "Easy Chair" in
Harper's Magazine, Mr. Curtis' work was familiar to a wide circle of
readers throughout the English-speaking world. His writings are
all brightened by a vein of refined and genial humour. His chief
works are Nile Notes, The Howadji in Syria, Lotus-Eating,
Potiphar Papers, Prue and I, and Trumps.
DEERING, NATHANIEL (1791-1881), a playwright of note and humorous
story writer. Author of Bozzaris and The Clairvoyants.
DE MILLE, JAMES, Canadian (1837-1880). He began his career as a
humorous writer while still at school, his writings appearing in
New Brunswick papers. In 1860 he was appointed to the Chair
of Classics in Acadia College, and four years later that of history
and rhetoric in Dalhousie College, Halifax, holding the position
till his death. He published, during his comparatively short life-
time, more than twenty books, of which The Dodge Club found
the most readers.
DENNIE, JOSEPH (1768-1812), a lawyer who thought better of it,
and adopted literature as a profession. In 1801 he became editor
of the Portfolio, and, under the nom de plume "Oliver Old
School," edited and wrote for it till his death. His Short Sermons
for Idle Readers are rich in humour.
DEPEW, CHAUNCEY MITCHELL, born 1834. He entered politics
before 1860, and has stayed in ever since. He is President of the
New York Central Railway, the right-hand man of the Republican
party, and America's most famous facetious after-dinner speaker and
story-teller.
DERBY, GEORGE HORATIO ("JOHN PHOENIX"), 1823-1861, a gradu-
ate of West Point, and served in the war with Mexico, receiving a
severe wound in the battle of Cerro Gordo. He explored. Minne-
sota territory in 1849, and after holding many important govern.
ment positions, was made captain of engineers. He died from
effects produced by sunstroke. Under the pseudonym "John
Phoenix," he wrote the first of what may be called newspaper
humour. His Phenixiana and The Squibob Papers have been
published on both sides the Atlantic.
DIAZ, MRS. ABBY (1821), a humorous writer for the young;
author of Chronicles of the Stimpcett Family, The William
Henry Letters, etc.
DODGE, H. C., a writer of newspaper verse, ready with his rhymes,
but whose chief ingenuity is displayed in the typographical
arrangements of his verse.
DOUGLASS, WILLIAM, a Scotsman who made America his home in
1718. He was a famous satirist in his day.
DowE, MRS. JENNIE E. T. Her best work is to be found in the
Century Magazine, where she, every now and again, fills a page or
two with graceful and fantastical verse, usually employing a slight
dialect of one sort or another. Her poems are full of life and
music, and are decidedly clever.
DRAKE, JOSEPH RODMAN (1795-1820), co-author with Halleck of the
Croaker Papers, and author of The Culprit Fay.
DRUMMOND, DR. W. H., a resident of Montreal, Canada.
master of the French-Canadian dialect, and in verse has the field
pretty much to himself.
His Wreck of the Julie Plante is the
most popular humorous song Canada has produced.
DUNLOP, WILLIAM, born in Scotland 1795 (?), died in Canada 1848.
He contributed to Blackwood's Magazine "The Autobiography of
a Rat," founded the Toronto Literary Society, and represented
Huron County in the first parliament after the union of Upper and
Lower Canada.
Dwight, TimotHY (1752-1817), President of Yale College, and hymn-
writer of note. Among his many published works is Triumph of
Infidelity, a satire.
EDWARDS, EDWARD E., the author of "Facts and Fancies" in the
Boston Transcript.
FAY, THEODORE SEDGEWICK, born
Willis in the New York Mirror.
diplomatic service, and was
for years.
character.
1807, an associate of Morris and
Mr. Fay, about 1830, joined the
stationed at Berlin and Berne
He published many works of a quietly humorous
FESSENDEN, THOMAS GREEN (1771-1837). When at Dartmouth
College he wrote "Jonathan's Courtship," a ballad which became
popular, and was reprinted in England. He studied law and
wrote humorous verse until 1801, when he was sent to England
with a newly-patented hydraulic machine which proved a failure.
This and other patents in which he experimented ruined him.
Returning to America, he edited for a time the New York Weekly
Inspector, and from this time till his death was connected with one
paper or another. His published works include Democracy
Unveiled, Pills, Poetical, Political, and Philosophical, pre-
scribed for the purpose of purging the Public of Philosophers,
Penny Poetasters, of Paltry Politicians and Petty Partisans. By
Peter Pepperbox, Poet and Physician, Philadelphia.”
FIELD, EUGENE (1850). During the year 1891 Mr. Field made
a successful début before the reading public of Great Britain with
his Little Book of Western Verse, and Little Book of Profitable
Tales, published by Osgood, McIlvain, & Co. For many years
past Mr. Field has been the chief humorist of Chicago, and in
verse and prose holds an honoured place among the present-day
writers of America. He is equally at home in prose and verse.
FIELD, MATTHEW C. (1812-1844), a contributor to many southern
journals from 1834 till the time of his death.
FIELDS, JAMES THOMAS (1817-1881). He edited the Atlantic Monthly
for eleven years, and wrote several volumes of prose and clever
humorous verse. He was partner in the publishing house of
Ticknor & Fields.
FINN, HENRY J. (1782-1840), an actor, miniature painter, and
humorist. He was lost in the burning of the steamer Lexington.
FOLGER, PETER (1617-1690), grandfather of Benjamin Franklin,
published a satirical attack on the follies of the day, under the
extensive title of A Looking-glass for the Times; or, the Former
Spirit of New England Revised in this Generation.
FOSS, SAM. WALTER (1858), editor of the Yankee Blade.
his poems are as widely quoted on one side the Atlantic as the
other, they have not yet appeared in book form in England.
FRANKLIN, BENJAMIN (1706-1790). It is difficult to say what
Franklin was not, and there can be no question of his being the
best-informed man of his day. Along with his other virtues,
he was a humorist, and sparkling witty in conversation and
writing. He was the first American to achieve cosmopolitan fame
as a writer.
FRENEAU, PHILIP (1752-1832). He commenced to write poetry
before he left college, and continued to do so all his life. As a
consequence, his published works are many. His reputation as a
humorist rests to a great extent on 66 A Journey from Philadelphia
to New York, by Robert Slender, Stocking-Weaver," published
1787.
GOLDSMITH, JAY CHARLTON, the "P.I. Man" of the New York
Herald, and the author of the "Jay Charlton
appeared in the Danbury News.
GRAYDON, ALEXANDER (1752-1818). Graydon served in the War of
Independence, was taken prisoner; when peace was restored was
appointed to a government office, which he held for many years.
He wrote his memoirs, and was an epigrammatist of note.
GREEN, JOSEPH (1706-1780), a writer of verse, chiefly parody. His
"Poet's Lament for the Loss of his Cat, which he used to call
his Mews," published in the London Magazine, 1733, and “The
Wonderful Lament of Old Mr. Tenor," are the most notable of his
productions. He died in England.
GREENE, ALBERT GORTON (1802-1868), founder of the Providence
Athenæum, and president of the Rhode Island Historical Society
from 1854 till his death. His poem, "Old Grimes," has appeared
in almost every collection of American humour published.
GREGORY, W. H., working editor of Judge, and a brilliant para-
graphist.
GRISWOLD, A. MINOR (nom de guerre, "The Fat Contributor "), first
made his name on the Cincinnati Enquirer, and afterwards
became identified with Texas Siftings. In 1889 he started on a
lecturing tour à la Artemus Ward, and died in Michigan.
HABBERTON, JOHN, born 1842. The author of Helen's Babies. He
served through the war, and after an unsuccessful attempt to estab-
lish himself in business he took up journalism. In 1876, after
several refusals, he found a publisher for Helen's Babies, and the
result was a sale of close on half a million copies in the United
States alone. Since that time he has published a dozen or more
books, most of them successes.
HALE, LUCRETIA PEABODY, born 1820. Her Peterkim Papers, pub-
lished in America by Osgood & Co., Boston, made her famous
with the young folk of America, but the reader must be young to
enjoy the skits.
HALIBURTON, THOMAS CHANDLER (1797-1865), Canada's most
famous humorist. Was admitted to the bar in Nova Scotia at the
age of twenty-three, and nine years later was made Chief Justice of
the Court of Common Pleas, and in 1840 Judge of the Supreme
Court. In 1842 he resigned this office and settled in England,
sitting in Parliament as Conservative member for Launceston from
1859 to 1865. It was in the year 1835 he commenced writing his
humorous works that made the name of "Sam Slick" famous the
world over. His first production was The Clockmaker; or, The
Sayings and Doings of Sam Slick; and this he followed up with
Bubbles of Canada, Letter Bag of the Great Western, Yankee
Stories, Nature and Human Nature, etc.
HALLECK, FITZ-GREENE (1790-1867), a descendant of John Eliot,
"The Apostle of the Indians." In 1819 he and John Rodman
Drake published the Croaker Papers, humorous and satirical, which
attracted much attention at the time. These papers he followed
with "Fanny," his longest poem, hitting off the follies of the day.
These are his chief contributions to humorous literature.
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