The Comic Tradition in America: An Anthology of American Humor

The selections in this anthology are drawn (with the exception of Benjamin Franklin) from the nineteenth century, the great age of American humor. The selections in this anthology range from Maine to Georgia, and from New England to Mark Twain’s Southwest; from boisterous frontier jokes to sharp political and social satire. It was during this century that regional folk humor developed into a conscious literary art of high craftsmanship, and an indispensable part of a native American literature.