BIOGRAPHICAL INDEX OF AMERICAN HUMORISTS.
Aby, Joe C., “Hoffenstein,” born 1858. A humorist who made his reputation on the New Orleans Times-Democrat. His “Hoffenstein” sketches have been issued in book form.
Adams, Charles Follen (1842). “Leedle Yawcob Strauss,” a short poem bubbling over with quiet, kindly, pathetic humour, given in quaint German-American vernacular, first brought Mr. Adams before the public. “Leedle Yawcob Strauss” has been followed by many sunny pieces in similar dialect. Mr. Adams has published Leedle Yawcob Strauss and other Poems, Dialect Ballads, etc.
Adams, John Quincy (1767-1848), sixth President of the United States, first attracted public attention by his writings, and principally on account of his pen he was appointed to many honourable posts by President George Washington. He wrote a number of humorous pieces of verse, the most popular being “The Plague in the Forest” and “The Wants of Man.”
Alcott, Louisa May (1832-1888). Author of Little Women, Little Men, Moods, An Old-Fashioned Girl, Eight Cousins, etc. Most popular with the young people of America and Great Britain.
Alden, William L., born 1837. Author of Domestic Explosives, Shooting Stars, Moral Pirates, A Lost Soul (Chatto & Windus), and a host of volumes of facetious short stories. He was admitted to the bar, but took to journalism; made himself famous as the “fifth-column man” on the New York Times; was appointed consul-general at Rome, the king decorating him with the cross of Chevalier of the “Crown of Italy” at the end of his consulship. He introduced canoeing as a pastime into the United States, and founded the first canoe club. He is now (1893) writing humorous “stories” for the Idler and other English publications, and his work has lost none of his old-time flavour.
Aldrich, Thomas Bailey, born 1837. Mr. Aldrich, who for many years was looked upon as one of the most promising younger writers of America, has now attained the first rank in American poetry. His first great success was the Ballad of Babie Bell, published in 1856, and this induced him to adopt literature as a profession. In March 1881 he was appointed editor of the Atlantic Monthly. Since Babie Bell appeared he has given to the public much work of a high order. Pampinea and other Poems, 1861; Poems (two collections), 1863 and 1865; Cloth of Gold, 1874; Flower and Thorn, 1876; Lyrics and Sonnets, 1880, in verse; and Marjorie Daw and other People, 1873; Prudence Palfrey, 1874; The Stillwater Tragedy, 1880; Mercedes, 1883, in prose, are well known in Great Britain and America. Messrs. Macmillan & Co. publish his works in England, and Houghton, Mifflin, & Co. in America.
Alsop, George, born 1638. When twenty years old he sailed to Maryland, and for four years laboured as a servant. At the restoration of King Charles he, a warm Royalist, returned to England, and whether he returned to America or not is uncertain. He published A Character of the Province of Maryland, a volume of prose and verse, absurdly humorous from beginning to end.
Alsop, Richard (1761-1815). Founder of a society of literary-inclined individuals known as the “Hartford Wits.” Alsop was the chief writer of the Echo, a series of burlesque essays published between 1791 and 1795. He also published The Enchanted Lake of Fairy Morgana, Monody on the Death of Washington, The Natural and Civil History of Chili, and edited the Captivity and Adventures of J. R. Jewett among the Savages of Nootka Sound. He was an accomplished linguist.