Barr, Robert (1851), co-editor of the Idler (1892), and for many years connected with the Detroit Free Press. His humorous sketches and short stories, both humorous and dramatic, under the nom de guerre of “Luke Sharp,” first made him known to the readers of the United Kingdom and America, but lately he has taken to writing under his proper name. His published works are In a Steamer Chair, and other Shipboard Stories (Chatto & Windus), From Whose Bourn, Strange Happenings, One Day’s Courtship, Jones and I, etc. Although inseparably connected with American humour, and having made his first success in America and on an American paper, he was educated in Canada.
Bartlett, Joseph (1762-1827), graduated at Harvard, studied law, and travelled to England to spend his money, which he easily succeeded in doing, and as a result found himself in prison for debt. In prison he wrote a play, and with the money obtained for it bought his release. Trying the stage for a while and not making headway, he obtained a cargo of goods on credit for sale in America, set sail, and was shipwrecked. In Boston he started in business, failed, opened a law office in Woburn, and removed to Cambridge. There he wrote “Physiognomy,” a poem lampooning celebrities of the day, and afterwards “The New Vicar of Bray.” He died penniless.
Bayles, Mather (1706-1788), humorous verse-writer.
Beers, Henry Augustin, born 1847, Professor of English at Yale. Has published Odds and Ends, The Thankless Muse, volumes of verse, and Life of N. P. Willis, A Century of American Literature, and An Outline Sketch of English Literature. Has written a few facetious poems.
Belknap, Rev. Jeremy (1744-1798), a New England historian, and author of The Foresters, an American Tale, a work rich in humour.
Bellaw, Americus W., humorous verse-writer, contributor to most of the humorous papers of America. He is well-known to readers of newspaper humour in the United States.
Benjamin, Park (1809-1864), a Boston attorney, who drifted into magazine writing, and being equally at home in verse or prose, published a great amount of matter. For a time he was associated with Horace Greeley as editor of the New Yorker, and in 1840 he founded the New World, and, with others, edited it for five years. His principal works are Infatuation and Poetry, both satires in verse.
Beveridge, John, a Scotsman by birth, who in 1758 was appointed Professor of Languages in Philadelphia College; published some Latin verse of a humorous description, with their English translations by his students.
Bolton, Mrs. Sarah Tittle (1815). She wrote “Paddle your own Canoe.”
Brackenridge, Hugh Henry (1748-1816). Born in Scotland and taken to America while still a child, he earned enough money to put himself through Princetown, graduating in 1771, and rose to be one of the Justices of Pennsylvania Supreme Court (1799). Modern Chivalry, or the Adventures of Captain Farrago and Teague O’Regan his Servant, published in Pittsburg, 1796, a political satire, established his reputation as a humorist.