Merry Wives and Others:
A History of Domestic Humor Writing
by Tim Bete
So, you hated history in high school.
Here's a history book any humor writer will enjoy.
Merry Wives and Others: A History of Domestic Humor Writing (July 2002), written by Penelope Fritzer and Bartholomew Bland, is a "historical and literary survey of humorists who wrote about home." Fritzer is an associate professor at Florida Atlantic University's Davie campus and attended the first Erma Bombeck Writers' Workshop. Bland is the director of exhibitions at the Staten Island Institute of Arts and Sciences.
The book reads like a who's who of domestic humor writing. More than 150 writers are profiled, including Liz Carpenter, Lori Borgman, Judy Gruen, P.S. Wall, D.L. Stewart, Bruce Cameron and Art Buchwald, all who spoke at past Erma Bombeck Writers' Workshops.
The book chronicles domestic humor writing from its foundation in the 1920s (e.g., Louise Dickenson Rich, Shirley Jackson) through "mid-century merry wives" (e.g., Peg Bracken, Jean Kerr) to "Queen Erma and Her Early Contemporaries" (e.g., Erma Bombeck, Judith Viorst, Joan Rivers). The book continues with short biographies of the "current crop" of humorists, including sections on "husbandly humor," "Through the Eyes of a Child," "The Christian Contingent," and Canadian and British writers.
While parts of the book read like an academic textbook, no other book provides such a landscape of domestic humor writers. The short writing samples in each bio are especially interesting. Unfortunately, the price ($32.00) is also rather scholarly, so you might want to check at your local library before purchasing it.
The bottom line: It's good for humor writers to read about their founding fathers -- or in this case, founding mothers.
Merry Wives and Others: A History of Domestic Humor Writing
Table of Contents
Preface 1
1. SOCIAL CONTEXT 3
2. LAYING THE FOUNDATION 13
Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings
Cornelia Otis Skinner
Louise Dickinson Rich
Betty MacDonald
Shirley Jackson
3. MIDCENTURY MERRY WIVES 35
Phyllis McGinley
Jean Kerr
Aloise Buckley Heath
Hilda Cole Espy
Peg Bracken
The Minor League: Margaret Halsey, Rita Anton, Linda Grover, and Helen Beardsley
4. QUEEN ERMA AND HER EARLY CONTEMPORARIES 51
Erma Bombeck
Judith Viorst
Shirley Lueth
Mary Kuczkir
Nancy Stahl
Teresa Bloomingdale
Marguerite Hurrey Wolf
Phyllis Naylor
Joan Rivers
5. THE NEXT WAVE 76
Myra Chanin
Ann Rudy
Barbara Holland
Caryl Rivers and Alan Lupo
Louise DeGrave
Prudence Mackintosh
Judy Markey
Alice Kahn
Leslie Tonner
Sylvia Harney
Anna Quindlan
Surrogate Parents: Evelyn Abrahams, Lois Wyse, Mary McBride and Veronica McBride, Delia Ephron, and Liz Carpenter
6. THE CURRENT CROP: POSTMODERNS AND TRADITIONALISTS 101
Jacquelyn Mitchard
Marion Winik
Mary Kay Blakely
Suzann Ledbetter
Teryl Zarnow
Elaine Viets
Joann Baker
Caryl Kristensen and Marilyn Kentz
Lori Borgman
Jennifer Moses
Amy Krouse Rosenthal
Susan Murphy
Debbie Farmer
Linda Fink
Kimberly Ripley
Sandi Kahn Shelton
Marilyn Dittoe
Sue Diaz
Bea Joyner
Loretta Griffin
Monica F. Anderson
Judy Gruen
P. S. Wall
7. HUSBANDLY HUMOR I: IN THE BEGINNING 141
Ring Lardner and Nina Wilcox Putnam
E. B. White
Robert Benchley
S. J. Perelman
Richard Armour and Ogden Nash
Jack Douglas
Alan King
Jack Parr
Tom Braden
8. HUSBANDLY HUMOR II: CONTEMPORARY COMICS 154
Gary Christenson
Calvin Trillin
Bill Cosby
Dave Barry
D. L. Stewart
Hugh O'Neill
Thomas R. Trowbridge
Sam Cook
Paul Reiser
Steven Lewis
Tom Pinnock
Gene Doucette
Al Roker
Michael Korda
Walter Roark
W. Bruce Cameron
Bill Vaughan
Lewis Frumkes
Patrick McManus
Bill Bryson
Christopher Buckley
Tony Kornheiser
Art Buchwald
Andy Rooney
Tim Allen
Jeff Foxworthy
9. THROUGH THE EYES OF A CHILD 179
Clarence Day, Jr.
Frank Gilbreth, Jr., and Ernestine Gilbreth Carey
James Thurber
Ruth McKenney
Hildegard Dolson
Emily Kimbrough
Rosemary Taylor
Sam Levenson
Lewis Grizzard
Cornelia Otis Skinner
Betty MacDonald
Peg Bracken
Richard Armour
10. THE CHRISTIAN CONTINGENT 190
Patsy Clairmont
Martha Bolton and Pam Vredevelt
Barbara Johnson
Janet Lanese
Lib Uzzell Griffin
Kathy Peel
Gwendolyn Mitchell Diaz and Angela Elwell Hunt
Mike Nappa and Tony Nappa
Phil Callaway
Tom Mullen
Laura Jensen Walker and Tom Plummer
11. CURIOUSER AND CURIOUSER 199
Regina Barreca
Jan King
Margo Kaufman
David Owen and John Thorne
Anne Lamott
Karen Finley
Deborah Werksman and Norma Vasey Webb
Linda Sultan
Marshall J. Levinson
Harold B. Smith
Scott Badler
R. M. Hrapko and B. Hrapko
Wendy Reid Crisp
Giovanni Guareschi
Corey Ford
Bruce Lansky
Lynn Alpern and Esther Blumenfeld
Kimberly Chambers
Catherine and Tim Burr and Beverly and Martin Hopper
Jane Naliboff
12. CANADIAN WRITERS 215
M. A. C. Farrant
Richard Scrimger
Linwood Barclay
Andy Juniper
Phil Callaway
Candi McLean
Donna L. E. Robbins
13. BRITISH WRITERS 226
Alice Thomas Ellis
Jilly Cooper
Elisabeth Luard
14. MAKING THE CONNECTIONS 235
Bibliography 241
Index 255
