Humor - A Friend in the Library

Volume VI - A Practical Guide to the Writings of Ralph Waldo Emerson, Nathaniel Hawthorne, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, James Russell Lowell, John Greenleaf Whittier, Oliver Wendell Holmes - In Twelve Volumes

Eva March Tappan

• Publisher: Read & Co. Books
• Year: 2018
• Print ISBN: 9781528702355
• eBook ISBN: 9781528784757
• Subtopic: North American Literary Collections

Eva March Tappan's "A Friend in the Library" series is a comprehensive guide to the writings of six seminal American writers, including Ralph Waldo Emerson, Nathaniel Hawthorne, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, James Russell Lowell, John Greenleaf Whittier, and Oliver Wendell Holmes. In volume six, Tappan examines humour, looking at instances of comedy and wit in the works of these writers, as a well as looking for other clues as to how they view the concept in general. Highly recommended for students of American literature. March Tappan (1854 – 1930) was an American author and teacher. Other notable works by this author include: "Adventures & Achievements" (1900), "Poems & Rhymes" (1900), and "In the Days of Queen Elizabeth" (1902). Many vintage books such as this are increasingly scarce and expensive. It is with this in mind that we are republishing this volume now in an affordable, modern, high-quality edition complete with a specially-commissioned new biography of the author. This book was first published in 1909.

HUMOR

A SENSE of humor is an exceedingly good quality to possess. Like the pig of the cotter, it is “a mighty convenient thing to have in the house.” It brightens a dull time, it throws sunshine upon troublesome questions, and it clears the air. Lowell says that a sense of humor is a “modulating and restraining balance-wheel” (“Democracy,” vii. 1). Most certainly the man with a keen appreciation of humor is saved from a good many blunders, because he can see how ridiculous they would make him. He cannot very well be unduly elated by any small success, because, knowing how many greater successes there are in the world, he realizes the absurdity of being puffed up by a little one. He cannot take himself half so seriously as the humorless man, for he sees how ridiculous it is to fancy that his acts and opinions are of preëminent value in a world containing so many millions of people. Often, instead of getting angry with the one who opposes him, the man with a sense of humor cannot help smiling at some ludicrous aspect of the situation; and in most conflicts the man who can smile is reasonably sure to win.

There are various kinds of so-called humorous writings, and some of them contain not a line of either humor or wit. The only excuse for laughing at the silly “jokes” of the “funny page” is that laughing at them may have become an uncontrollable nervous habit. It is fortunate if the paragraphs are only silly and not distinctly pernicious. I have just taken up at random two numbers of a well-known daily paper, not a “yellow journal” by any means, but a paper with strong, wise editorials and excellent book reviews, a paper that has never failed to be on the right side in any reform of the day; but look at the mental food which it provides for the lover of humor! In these two numbers there is the ancient story of the boy who asks permission to attend his grandmother’s funeral when he really wants to go to a ball-game. There is the youth who tells the girl under the mistletoe that he wants to kiss her “so as to get acquainted.” There is the husband who has the happiest time of his life when his wife cannot use her voice for a while. And this is the way that an intelligent family newspaper teaches truthfulness, respect for age, modesty, and regard for the sacredness of home-life! It is small wonder that foreigners are inclined to scoff at “American humor,”—and it is as fair to take such abominable stuff for a sample of our best humor as it would be to take Mother Goose for a sample of our best poetry.

The year 1846 is famous in the history of American humor as the date of Lowell’s “Biglow Papers” (x. xi). Lowell was an earnest supporter of the anti-slavery cause, and in the belief that the Mexican War had been brought about to strengthen the slave power, he wrote the “Biglow Papers.” They are introduced as written by one Hosea Biglow, who is a parishioner of the learned Parson Wilbur. The humor of them begins with the first sentence of the preface. In this Lowell says he has observed the custom of collecting favorable notices of books to ...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title
• Copyright
• A Friend in the Library
• Eva March Tappan
• Contents
• Humor
• Questions