Dimensions
216 x 148 x 24mm
In this collection of chapter-length biographical portraits, Paul Johnson provides a scintillant and concise tour of great humorists throughout Western history. From Benjamin Franklin, Samuel Johnson, and Charles Dickens, to Charlie Chaplin, Noel Coward, and Nancy Mitford, HUMORISTS is brimming with striking personalities and their hilarious turns of phrase. In the tradition of the earlier volumes in Johnson's historical series, the book has an eye to the telling and memorable anecdote and story. HUMORISTS brings to life the biographies and words of some of the wittiest minds in history.
1 Hogarth: The Grand Old Master of Chaos
2 Benjamin Franklin, Founding Father of American Laughs
3 Dr. Johnson: Melancholy Merriment
4 Thomas Rowlandson: Bottoms Up!
5 Dickens: Nothing So Odd as Life
6 Toulouse-Lautrec: Master-Monster
7 G.K. Chesterton: A Living, Talking Gargoyle
8 Damon Runyon: Guys, Dolls, and the Puppet Master
9 W.C. Fields: The Dong with the Luminous Nose
10 Charlie Chaplin: Supple, Subtle, and Sentimental
11 Laurel and Hardy: Era of Good Fooling
12 The Marx Brothers: Second Law of Thermodynamics
13 James Thurber: Raising a Laugh by Accident
14 Noel Coward, Nancy Mitford and Class
