Johnston, Richard Malcolm, born 1822, a native of Georgia, author of The Dukesborough Tales and Mark Langston.
Josiah Allen’s Wife. See Holley.
Keeler, Ralph (1840-1873). Mr. Keeler had an adventurous career, running away from home when a lad, serving as cabin-boy on a lake steamer, train-boy on a railway, joining several bands of strolling minstrels, worked in a post-office, visited Europe, and supported himself by correspondence with newspapers and lecturing. He published Three Years a Negro Minstrel, A Tour of Europe on $181, Gloverson and his Silent Partners (from which “A Breach of Promise Case” in this volume is taken), and Vagabond Adventures. He mysteriously disappeared while doing newspaper work in Cuba, and it is supposed he was murdered and thrown overboard from a steamer.
Kelly, Andrew W. (“Pharmenas Mix”), died 1888. A writer of humorous poetry, which appeared in the Century Magazine, Detroit Free Press, etc.
Kerr, Orpheus C. See Newell.
Kimball, Mather Dean (1849), a Wisconsin journalist who has written some dialect pieces of merit.
Landon, Melville D., “Eli Perkins,” born 1840. In 1871 he published his first book, a detailed history of the Franco-German war, and afterwards began writing in a lighter vein for various publications, among them the Chicago Tribune.
Lanigan, George Thomas (1845-1886), a Canadian journalist who drifted across the borders, and who, after filling important positions on the staff of many of the great American newspapers, died in Philadelphia. He was a brilliant and versatile journalist, and his poems, “The Ahkoond of Swat” and “Dirge of the Moolta Kotal,” are masterpieces of oddness of theme and wording.
Leland, Charles Godfrey (1824). Best known to lovers of the humorous as the author of the laughable Breitmann Ballads. Since fifteen years of age Mr. Leland has been busy with his pen, and there is no greater authority on folk-lore, superstition, and legend than he. He has written many volumes of verse, sketches of travel, etc., and is still (1893) hard at work.
Lewis, Charles B., “M Quad,” born 1842. The creator of His Honor and Bijah, his first great success; The Lime Kiln Club, with all its comical darkey characters; Carl Dunder, the unsophisticated Dutchman who is always being “shwindled”; The Arisona Kicker, whose editor keeps a private graveyard; and Mr. and Mrs. Bowser. “M Quad” is without question the greatest newspaper humorist of America. His style is deliciously original; he can write weekly for years on the same subject without wearying the reader. “Quad” is popularly known as the Detroit Free Press man, from his long connection with that weekly.