Article: "A Complexion of Improbabilities": American Humor and Frontier News after the Revolution.(CE)

In his still useful introduction to The Best American Humorous Short Stories, Alexander Jessup remarked that the best humorists before Twain "carried to an extreme numerous tricks already invented by earlier American humorists, particularly the tricks of gigantic exaggeration and calm faced mendacity," which grew out of "the differences between the frontier and the more settled and compact regions of the country." This recycling or copying of well-established conventions carried over to the plots of tales and jests themselves. Paul Zall has emphasized the inevitability if not the legitimacy of such practices before 1800:

   Switching names and places enabled the ...

Related newspaper, magazine, and journal articles:

 
 
Newsweek Harper's Magazine The Washington Post Chicago Tribune Crain's Chicago Business PRNewswire Pediatric News The Nation Advertising Age The Economist (US) A FREE trial gives you access to over 80 million articles! Access over 6,500 publications with a FREE trial!