Encyclopedia of American Humorists
Encyclopedia of American Humorists

Author: Steven H. Gale

Publisher: Routledge

Published: 2016-04-14

Total Pages: 578

ISBN-13: 1317362276

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First published in 1988, this book contains entries on famous American Humorists. Humor has been present in American literature, from the beginning, and has developed characteristics that reflect the American character, both regional and national. Although American literature was, in the past, treated as inferior to British literature, there has always been a large popular audience for the genre, which this book shows. The figures with entries in this encyclopedia not only amuse in their writing, but also aim to enlighten- setting out to expose the foibles and foolishness of society and the individuals who compose it. It is the manner in which these authors try to accomplish this end that determines whether they appear in the volume. Indeed, the book will demonstrate that the best humor has at its base, a ready understanding of human nature.

American Humorists
American Humorists

Author: Thorp

Publisher: U of Minnesota Press

Published: 1964

Total Pages: 50

ISBN-13: 1452909350

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American Humorists - American Writers 42 was first published in 1964. Minnesota Archive Editions uses digital technology to make long-unavailable books once again accessible, and are published unaltered from the original University of Minnesota Press editions.

Mark Twain, American Humorist
Mark Twain, American Humorist

Author: Tracy Wuster

Publisher: University of Missouri Press

Published: 2017-12-01

Total Pages: 502

ISBN-13: 0826274110

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Mark Twain, American Humorist examines the ways that Mark Twain’s reputation developed at home and abroad in the period between 1865 and 1882, years in which he went from a regional humorist to national and international fame. In the late 1860s, Mark Twain became the exemplar of a school of humor that was thought to be uniquely American. As he moved into more respectable venues in the 1870s, especially through the promotion of William Dean Howells in the Atlantic Monthly, Mark Twain muddied the hierarchical distinctions between class-appropriate leisure and burgeoning forms of mass entertainment, between uplifting humor and debased laughter, and between the literature of high culture and the passing whim of the merely popular.

Humorists
Humorists

Author: Paul Johnson

Publisher: Harper Collins

Published: 2010-11-30

Total Pages: 260

ISBN-13: 0062024868

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“It is Johnson’s gift that he can make his subjects human and fallible enough that we would…recognize them instantly, while also illuminating what made them heroes.” —Washington Post Book World on Heroes “Johnson is a clear, intelligent, forceful writer, and nothing if not thorough.” —Wall Street Journal Paul Johnson, the acclaimed author of Creators, Heroes, and the New York Times bestseller Intellectuals, returns with a captivating collection of biographical portraits of the Western world’s greatest wits and humorists. With chapters dedicated to history’s sharpest tongues and most piercing pens, including Benjamin Franklin, Toulouse-Lautrec, G.K. Chesterton, Damon Runyan, W.C. Fields, the Marx Brothers, and many more, Johnson’s Humorists is an exciting compendium of our most enduring comical and satirical innovators.

American Humorists, 1800-1950
American Humorists, 1800-1950

Author: Stanley Trachtenberg

Publisher: Detroit, Mich. : Gale Research Company

Published: 1982

Total Pages: 328

ISBN-13:

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Contains biographical sketches of American humorists who are generally considered to have had a major impact on our attitudes toward and understanding of humor and on the development of the form through the production of a significant body of work. Only literary figures were considered for inclusion, criterion was based on whether the author's work was primarily humorous or whether there was a significant body of humorous writing.

Encyclopedia of the Essay
Encyclopedia of the Essay

Author: Tracy Chevalier

Publisher: Routledge

Published: 2012-10-12

Total Pages: 1032

ISBN-13: 1135314101

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This groundbreaking new source of international scope defines the essay as nonfictional prose texts of between one and 50 pages in length. The more than 500 entries by 275 contributors include entries on nationalities, various categories of essays such as generic (such as sermons, aphorisms), individual major works, notable writers, and periodicals that created a market for essays, and particularly famous or significant essays. The preface details the historical development of the essay, and the alphabetically arranged entries usually include biographical sketch, nationality, era, selected writings list, additional readings, and anthologies