JOHN KENDRICK BANGS

Biography of the American humorist, written with affection by his son, well spiced with letters, qui, quotations from his work, anecdotes -- and served up with literary, political and social names of the period. JKB inherited a talent for wit from a causti father, and had his collegiate world in an uproar at Columbia. From there, after a try at law, he went to the new Life, thence to Harper's Weekly, and other magazines and newspapers. He won fame as an author, as a lecturer; his waggish turn of mind, extravaganzas, made him a beloved jester. A relaxing kind of reading about a special period in American letters, with a nostalgic appeal for older readers.