ABSTRACT

Artemus Ward was the preeminent literary comedian in America prior to Mark Twain's emergence as a serious humorist during the 1870s and 1880s. His career established the possibility of a writer of literary comedy enjoying the acceptance of the genteel and the economic satisfaction of general popularity. Ward actively encouraged other literary comedians and was the focal point of national and even international interest beyond anything accorded an American humorous writer with the exception of Washington Irving. The personality of P. T. Barnum, who had popularized himself as the purveyor of "moral" tent shows throughout the East, Midwest, and South to supplement his American museum, provided the vulgarly hypocritical showman of the Artemus Ward pieces. Ward burlesqued old saws and sentiment, romance and warfare, all as related to his audience and the United States. The serious intention was a phenomenon of major significance for American humor.