THE DECLINE AND FALL OF PRACTICALLY EVERYBODY

For the Cuppy collector this posthumous volume, on which he had been working for many years, is a condensed, personal interpretation of history from the days of the Egyptians up to the New World, edited by Fred Feldkamp and illustrated by drawings from the spare but effective pen of William Steig. Master of the flat statement, which ends in a double-take, Cuppy makes the most of the odd spots of olden times and adds to them not only asides in the text but out-of-hand footnotes to make for a greater (in) coherence and (non) essential education. From Cheops and Hatshepsut, on to Pericles, Alexander, Hannibal, Cleopatra and Nero, through Attila and Lucrezia Borgia, some Greats (Louis IX, Du Barry, Peter, Catherine, Frederick), he progesses to William the Conqueror, Henry VIII, Elizabeth, George III and as far as Leif, Columbus, Montezuma, Captain John Smith and Miles Standish. There are two further chapters on royal pranks and royal stomachs.... As you can see, quite a handful of Cuppy-siantics. The introduction by the editor is a tribute to the author, and a short but interesting picture of him. Perhaps your easiest comparison is an American version of 1066 And All That in the humorous market.