American Satire An Anthology of Writings from Colonial Times to the Present

by Bakalar, Nicholas

• ISBN13: 9780452011748
• ISBN10: 0452011744
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 1997-04-01
• Publisher: Plume

Summary

Throughout American history, satire has attracted the country's best writers. From Ben Franklin's cutting satiric attacks on British policy toward the American colonies to Mark Twain's "American Abroad" to Art Buchwald's "Pictures From Vietnam", this collection entertains while it informs, providing an excellent overview of American satirical prose and poetry. 468 pp

Table of Contents

Preface	xi
Introduction	xiii
Thomas Morton (ca. 1590--ca. 1647)	1	(8)
New English Canaan	2	(7)
Ebenezer Cook (fl. 1708)	9	(22)
The Sot-Weed Factor	9	(22)
Francis Hopkinson (1737--1791)	31	(17)
A Pretty Story	32	(16)
Benjamin Franklin (1706--1790)	48	(17)
On Sending Felons to America	48	(3)
The Sale of the Hessians	51	(2)
Model of a Letter of Recommendation	53	(1)
Rules by Which a Great Empire May Be Reduced to a Small One	53	(8)
Humourous Reasons for Restoring Canada	61	(4)
Alexander Hamilton (1712--1756)	65	(11)
The Tuesday Club	66	(10)
Philip Freneau (1752--1832)	76	(18)
The British Prison Ship	76	(18)
Hugh Brackenridge (1748--1816)	94	(19)
Modern Chivalry	95	(18)
Washington Irving (1783--1859)	113	(31)
Tales of a Traveler	114	(30)
Nathaniel Hawthorne (1804--1864)	144	(18)
The Celestial Railroad	144	(18)
Fanny Fern (1811--1872)	162	(11)
Have We Any Men Among Us?	162	(2)
Tom Pax's Conjugal Soliloquy	164	(2)
To Gentlemen	166	(1)
Has a Mother a Right to Her Children?	167	(2)
Fresh Leaves	169	(1)
A Chapter for Parents	170	(3)
James Russell Lowell (1819--1891)	173	(17)
The Biglow Papers	174	(16)
Ambrose Bierce (1842--1914?)	190	(22)
The Devil's Dictionary	190	(22)
Finley Peter Dunne (1867--1936)	212	(11)
Mr. Dooley	212	(11)
Mark Twain (1835--1910)	223	(36)
Fenimore Cooper's Literary Offenses	223	(13)
A Helpless Situation	236	(5)
Advice to Youth	241	(3)
The Art of Inhumation (from Life on the Mississippi)	244	(3)
American in Europe (from A Tramp Abroad)	247	(8)
The War Prayer	255	(4)
George Ade (1866--1944)	259	(30)
The Sultan of Sulu	259	(30)
Stephen Crane (1871--1900)	289	(3)
A newspaper is a collection of half-injustices	290	(1)
War Is Kind	290	(2)
Guy Wetmore Carryl (1873--1904)	292	(6)
How Little Red Riding Hood Came to be Eaten	292	(3)
How Rudeness and Kindness Were Justly Rewarded	295	(3)
Edith Wharton (1862--1937)	298	(47)
Xingu	298	(24)
Expiation	322	(23)
H.L. Mencken (1880--1956)	345	(6)
Rondo on an Ancient Theme	346	(5)
Sinclair Lewis (1885--1951)	351	(18)
A Letter from the Queen	352	(17)
Will Rogers (1879--1935)	369	(6)
A Day at the Republican Convention	369	(2)
At the Democratic Convention	371	(4)
Dorothy Parker (1893--1967)	375	(7)
Words, Words, Words	375	(4)
Far From Well	379	(2)
Comment	381	(1)
One Perfect Rose	381	(1)
James Thurber (1894--1961)	382	(6)
Tom, the Young Kidnapper	383	(5)
Langston Hughes (1902--1967)	388	(3)
Ballad of the Landlord	388	(2)
Ku Klux	390	(1)
American Heartbreak	390	(1)
Kurt Vonnegut (1922-- )	391	(15)
In a Manner That Must Shame God Himself	391	(15)
Russell Baker (1925-- )	406	(9)
Universal Military Motion	406	(9)
Art Buchwald (1925-- )	415	(5)
Pictures from Vietnam	415	(2)
Telling the Truth	417	(3)
Gore Vidal (1925-- )	420	(17)
Ronnie and Nancy: A Life in Pictures	420	(17)
Calvin Trillin (1935-- )	437	(4)
Old Marrieds	438	(3)
P.J. O'Rourke (1947-- )	441	(7)
The Innocents Abroad, Updated	441	(7)
Molly Ivins (1944-- )	448	(5)
H. Ross Went Seven Bubbles Off Plumb (and Other Tales)	448	(5)
New Heights of Piffle	453