Page:The Cambridge History of American Literature, v2.djvu/168

152 Early Humorists himself and the burlesque biography of the old city con- stable, Jacob Hays. The Life and Adventures of Dr. Didimus Duckworth, A. N. Q. to which is added the History of a Steam Doctor (1833), is a mock-heroic biography of a spoiled child, in the style of broadest farce; The Perils of Pearl Street (1834) tells of the fortunes and misfortunes of a country lad who comes to New York in search of wealth. Both were written by Asa Green (d. 1837), a New England physician, who moved to New York and established himself as bookseller. A clever book, hustling with action, is Novellettes of a Traveller, or, Odds and Ends from the Knapsack of Thomas Singularity, Journey- man Printer (1834), which was written by Henry Junius Nott ( 1 797-1 837), of South Carolina, distinguished at the bar for his learning and afterwards as professor of belles-lettres. The Ollapodiana Papers, in the style of a more boisterous Lamb, were contributed to The Knickerbocker Magazine^ by Willis Gaylord Clark (1810-41), whose twin brother, Lewis Gay- lord Clark (d. 1873), for a long time editor of the Knickerbocker, was an accomplished journalist and humorist of the chatting sort. The Motley Book (1838) was a collection of original sketches and tales by Cornelius Mathews (1817-89), a ver- satile poet, dramatist, and journalist who was very prolific during the forties and whose Career of Puffer Hopkins (1841) is one of the most interesting of minor American political satires. The sprightly and observant Sketches of Paris (1838), by John Sanderson (i 783-1 844), were made a good deal of in London and Paris for a decade or so after their first appearance. George P. Morris (1802-64), ' oJ^e of the founders of The New York Mirror, collected in 1838 a volume of his sketches of New York life; the leading one, called The Little Frenchman and his Water Lots, is a pathetic but graphic account of a little French merchant duped by a Manhattan real estate dealer. The Annals of Quodlihet, a Political Satire by Solomon Secondthought, Schoolmaster (1840), by John Pendleton Ken- nedy, has been treated elsewhere in this history. ^ The in- fluence of Dickens is potent in Charcoal Sketches or Scenes in a Metropolis (1840), by Joseph Clay Neal (1807-47), whose " See also Book 11, Chaps, iii and xx. ' See also Book II, Chap. v. » See Book II, Chap. vii.