Josh Billings

This article describes the writer Josh Billings. For jazz musician Josh Billings see Frank Billings

Josh Billings

Josh Billings

Josh Billings (born April 1818 in Lanesborough , Berkshire County , Massachusetts , † October 14, 1885 in Monterey , California ) was an American writer .

Life

Henry Wheeler Shaw, later using the pseudonym Josh Billings, was the son of Henry Shaw , who served in the Massachusetts Senate for 25 years and was a Congressman from 1818 to 1821 . Josh Billings was admitted to training at Hamilton College in Clinton around 1832 , but did not complete his education there, but moved to the West after he was evicted for removing the clapper from the college bell. Among other things, he worked on the steamers of the Ohio River and as a farmer. In 1845 he temporarily returned to his hometown, where he married Zilpha Bradford. From 1858 he lived in Poughkeepsie , where he began to write. One of his early works was the Essay on the Mule . At first, however, it received little attention. It was only when Billings changed his style of speaking and the Essay on the Mule became an Essa on the Muel, bi Josh Billings , that he made his breakthrough. The work, which was now strongly dialectically colored, was printed in a New York newspaper and later in numerous other papers. Another hit was Josh Billings' Farmers Almanax , a parody of the Old Farmer's Almanac . This book was published for the first time in 1870 with an edition of 2,000 and quickly became a huge hit.

From 1863 Josh Billings also held readings. Josh Billings, his Sayings was published in 1866, Josh Billings on Ice was published in 1875 , Every Boddy's Friend was published in 1876 , Josh Billings's Complete Works was published in 1877 , and Josh Billings's Spice Box was published in 1881. He was a popular humorist better known than Mark Twain in his day . During the last 20 years of his life, he was a regular contributor to New York Weekly . The articles that appeared in Century magazine under the name "Uncle Esek" are also attributed to him.

death

In his novel The Sardine Road, John Steinbeck tells that Josh Billings died on a trip at the Hotel del Monte in Monterey and was supposed to be embalmed by a local doctor. However, according to Steinbeck's report, a local resident found that the doctor had simply thrown the famous man's internal organs into the ravine behind his house, where they were picked up by a boy and a dog. At the last moment the boy was said to have been prevented from going out to sea with Billings' liver and using it as bait while fishing.

Others

The annual Josh Billings Runaground Triathlon is named after Josh Billings . This event is considered to be the second oldest of its kind in the world.

literature

• David B. Kesterson: Josh Billings (Henry Wheeler Shaw) . Twayne Publishers New York 1973

Web links

• Literature by and about Josh Billings in the catalog of the German National Library

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Both April 12, 20 and 21, 1818 are given as birthdays in various sources.
2. ^ Arthur G. Adams: Hudson River in Literature. An Anthology . Fordham University Press, 1988, ISBN 978-0-8232-1202-6 , p. 303
3. ↑ digital.lib.lehigh.edu
4. ↑ Shaw, Henry Wheeler . In: James Grant Wilson, John Fiske (Eds.): Appletons' Cyclopædia of American Biography . tape 5 : Pickering - Sumter . D. Appleton and Company, New York 1888, p. 485 (English, Textarchiv - Internet Archive ).
5. ↑ joshbillings.com ( Memento of the original from March 2, 2010 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.