Open Daily: 10am - 10pm | Alley door pickup 10am - 7pm 3038 Hennepin Ave Minneapolis, MN
612-822-4611

  • Open Daily: 10am - 10pm
    Alley-side Pickup: 10am - 7pm

    3038 Hennepin Ave Minneapolis, MN
    612-822-4611

Open Daily: 10am - 10pm | Alley-side Pickup: 10am - 7pm
3038 Hennepin Ave Minneapolis, MN
612-822-4611
The Squibob Papers

The Squibob Papers

Horatio Derby, George

Paperback

HumorLiterary CriticismGeneral World History

ISBN10: 9354509495
ISBN13: 9789354509490
Publisher: Alpha Edition
Published: Apr 20 2021
Pages: 266
Weight: 0.87
Height: 0.60 Width: 6.00 Depth: 9.00
Language: English
Before California found its myth, George Horatio Derby was already puncturing it with a grin. Dry, bright, and wickedly observant. The Squibob Papers gathers his best newspaper letters and jokes into a satirical essays collection that still feels daringly modern. Written from the edge of the antebellum American West, these pieces turn frontier California life into lively targets: military bureaucracy, civic vanity, tall tales, and the everyday absurdities of a fast-growing 19th century California. Derby, an army officer with a comedian's timing, blends army officer satire with a humane affection for the people and places he lampoons. First published in the boom years of western newspapers, his comic voice helps map a culture in the making, where reputations are made overnight. The humour stays agile rather than cruel, sliding from mock-serious reportage to burlesque advice and gleeful misdirection. Read it as a humorous sketches anthology, a complete humor collection, and a cornerstone of classic American humor whose sideways wit anticipates Mark Twain style humor and other 19th century satire classics. Republished by Alpha Editions in a careful modern edition, this volume preserves the spirit of the original while making it effortless to enjoy today - a heritage title prepared for readers and collectors alike. For casual browsers it is quick, clever entertainment; for classic-literature shelves it is an unabridged classic edition that captures a formative American voice at full strength, and a lasting record of the early American West in its bustle, bravado, and laughter, at once local and timeless.

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