ENGLISH LIT 344 / COMEDY & SATIRE
A GLOSSARY OF HUMORISTS
[For more details on these people, check their lising in Wikipedia, but note--this is one of the rare times I can accept the use of Wikipedia as a source. I have found that most of the information there about these people is reliable.]
John Henry Faulk
John Henry Faulk was a storyteller and radio show host. In addition to his various writings, he was a writer for the country comedy show "Hee Haw." He is well known for successfully suing the entertainment industry people who blacklisted writers (and others) in the 1950's and 60's. You can read more about him and read one of his most famous pieces, Christmas Story, at this National Public Radio web site. He died in 1990
Molly Ivins
Molly, a newspaper columnist, political commentator, and bestselling author, like John Henry Faulk, was also from Austin, Texas. One of her most famous phrases, "You Got to Dance With Them What Brung You" was also the title of one of her books, a collection of her humorous columns. You can read one of her columns, More Texan sleaze and stink which appeared in The Free Press in 2006, shortly before she died of breast cancer.
Mark Twain
Twain is studied in depth in this class because he is recognized as the father of American humor. His essays, stories, and novels capture the contradictions and conflicts that make us what we are. For further details on Twain, read:
Erma Bombeck
Born Erma Fiste, Erma Bombeck's newspaper columns appeared in more than 900 newspapers. She wrote about the ordinary life of a housewife and mother. She also wrote for Good Housekeeping Magazine, Reader's Digest, Family Circle, Redbook and McCall's and many of the columns were published in books which became best-sellers. She was best known for her witty remarks, like "God created man, but I could do better" and "Housework, if you do it right, will kill you." You can find more of these at Brainy Quote.com
Art Buckwald
Buchwald is best known for his column in The Washington Post which was syndicated in many other newspapers. The column was usually a political satire. In 1982 and 1986 he received the Pulitzer Prize for Outstanding Commentary. He was was also known for his lawsuit against Paramount pictrues which argued that the Eddie Murphy film Coming to America was from a script treatment he had submitted. He won and was awarded damages. Chacun à son goût,or why we eat turkey is one of his pieces that appeared in the Herald Tribune in 2005.
Dave Barry
Dave Barry was a syndicated columnist whose work appeared for more than 25 years in more than 500 newspapers. He won the Pulitzer Prize for Commentary in 1988 and has written 30 books. Two of them were used as the basis for the CBS TV sitcom "Dave's World." He lives in Miami, Florida, with his wife, Michelle, who is a sportswriter. His web site provides a good example of his style of humor.
Ambrose Bierce
Bierce was a short-story writer and satirist. He is probably known best for his short story, An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge and his satirical dictionary, The Devil's Dictionary. His social criticism and satire often generated controversy and many of his columns produced hostile reactions from his readers.
H. L. Mencken
Mencken, a satirist who criticized American life and culture, was one of the most influential American writers and prose stylists of the first half of the 20th century. Among many things he is remembered for is his satirical reporting of the Scopes trial, which he called the "Monkey" trial. You can find some Mencken quotes at Brainy Quote. One of his essays Last Words, written in 1926, is a discussion of the "merits" of democaracy.
Ogden Nash
Nash was an American poet and is best known for his light verse. Notable among them is the often quoted:
Candy Is dandy
But liquor Is quicker.
James Thurber
Thurber was not only a writer, but a cartoonist. Much of his work appeared in The New Yorker magazine between 1927 and 1950. perhaps his most famous short story, The Secret Life of Walter Mitty, became a popular film starring Danny Kaye. Other stories, including The Unicorn in the Garden and The Catbird Seat reflect Thurber's cynical yet humorous view of life.
Artemus Ward
This is the 'pen name' of Charles Farrar Browne who is said to have inspired Mark Twain. A letter he wrote to the British magazine Punch titled The Tower of London illustrates his wit. (The fractured grammar of the piece is meant to illustrate the backwoods nature of the American.
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