Chapter Novelists And Humorists of Index by Simonds History of American Literature

Leslie Goldthwaite, and We Girls (1870), and Louisa M. Alcott (1832-1888) were the most popular writers for girls.

American Humor.

The quality of humor has been already noted in connection with the work of more than one American writer. The homely wit of Franklin gives a distinct coloring to his pages. Irving, not only in the robust mirthfulness of the Knickerbocker History, but also in the delightful pages of his several sketch-books, appears as a humorist of genial type. Lowell and Holmes have conspicuous places among the exponents of American humor; and there are scores of minor writers whose gifts in this field have not been concealed.

The Political Humorists.

The political humorist has long been in evidence. "Major Jack Downing" was the character assumed in the days of President Jackson by a young journalist of Portland, Maine, a graduate of Bowdoin College, Seba Smith (1792-1868). The war with Mexico later inspired his pen. The Civil War brought out several journalistic humorists, among whom one, Robert Henry Newell (1836-1901), of New York, wrote under the name of "Orpheus C. Kerr"; and another, David Ross Locke (1833-1888), an Ohio editor, figured as "Rev. Petroleum V. Nasby." His book Swingin' round the Cirkle (1866) was immensely popular throughout the North.

Philosophy and Humor.

Representative of a broader field and not connected with politics are the comic characters "Widow Bedott," the creation of Mrs. Frances Whitcher (1812-1852), and the oft-quoted "Mrs. Partington" of Benjamin P. Shillaber (1814-1890), whose Life and Sayings of Mrs. Partington appeared in 1854. Henry W. Shaw (1818-1885), "Josh Billings," and Charles F. Browne (1834-1867), "Artemus Ward," are the real leaders in this group of humorous professionals. Both appeared as entertainers on the public platform, as well as in the columns of the newspapers. In 1866, Browne visited England, where his lecture on The Mormons created as much merriment as it had occasioned in the United States. His complete writings were published in 1875. Shaw's humorous philosophy was embodied chiefly in Josh Billings' Farmer's Allminax, his absurd system of spelling contributing to the fun.

Poets.

Of those who have written humorously in verse, we may mention John Godfrey Saxe (1816-1887), whose humor mingling with sentiment is inferior to that of Thomas Hood, which it otherwise resembles, and Charles Godfrey Leland (1824-1903), of Philadelphia, author of the Hans Breitmann Ballads, published complete in 1871.

"Mark Twain," 1835-1910.

Samuel Langhorne Clemens, born near Hannibal, Missouri, a distinctly western product, has come to hold the foremost place among American humorists, although his distinction as a man of letters is by no means limited to this single field. His humor is broad and virile, often edged with satire. Reverence for tradition is not one of his traits; the rôle of the iconoclast is one which he assumes with vigor and with zest. After an apprenticeship in a newspaper office, beginning at twelve years of age, and a brief career as pilot on the Mississippi packets (it was the call of the leadsman as he reported his soundings which supplied the peculiar pen-name), Mr. Clemens went to Nevada, where for a time he filled the post of territorial secretary. Later, in San Francisco, he again took up newspaper work, and here made his first literary success with the story of The Celebrated Jumping Frog, which, at the suggestion of Bret Harte, he published in The Californian, a short-lived literary journal, in 1867. His first book, Innocents Abroad (1869), was the humorous record of a trip through Europe; it brought immediate fame. Roughing It (1872) was based upon early experiences in the far West. The Gilded Age (1873), written in collaboration with Charles Dudley Warner, introduced the noteworthy character "Col. Sellers," with his sanguine temperament