Charles Farrar Browne
| Charles Farrar Browne | |
|---|---|
"Artemus Ward"
|
|
| Born |
April 26, 1834 Waterford, Maine |
| Died | March 6, 1867 (aged 32) Southampton, Hampshire |
| Nationality | American |
| Occupation | humorist |
Charles Farrar Browne (April 26, 1834 – March 6, 1867) was a United States humor writer, better known under his nom de plume, Artemus Ward. He is considered to be America's first stand-up comedian. At birth, his surname was "Brown"; he added the "e" after he became famous.
Browne was born in Waterford, Maine. He began his career as a compositor and occasional contributor to the daily and weekly journals. In 1858, he published in The Plain Dealer (Cleveland, Ohio) the first of the "Artemus Ward" series, which, in a collected form, achieved great popularity in both America and England. Brownes' companion at the Plain Dealer George Hoyt wrote "his desk was a rickety table which had been whittled and gashed until it looked as if it had been the victim of lightning. His chair was a fit companion thereto, a wabbling, unsteady affair, sometimes with four and sometimes with three legs. But Browne saw neither the table, nor the chair, nor any person who might be near, nothing, in fact, but the funny pictures which were tumbling out of his brain. When writing, his gaunt form looked ridiculous enough. One leg hung over the arm of his chair like a great hook, while he would write away, sometimes laughing to himself, and then slapping the table in the excess of his mirth."
In 1860, he became editor of Vanity Fair, a humorous New York weekly, which proved a failure. About the same time, he began to appear as a lecturer and, by his droll and eccentric humor, attracted large audiences.
In 1863, Browne came as Artemus Ward to San Francisco to perform. Browne was an expert at publicity and by the time of his arrival, his manager had already been there for weeks advertising with notices in the local papers and talking with prominent citizens for endorsements. On November 13, 1863, he performed to a packed crowd at Platt's Music Hall. Ward played the part of Artemus as an illiterate rube but with "Yankee common sense." Writer Brett Harte was in the audience that night and he described it in the Golden Era as capturing American speech, "humor that belongs to the country of boundless prairies, limitless rivers, and stupendous cataracts--that fun which overlies the surface of our national life, which is met in the stage, rail-car, canal and flat-boat, which bursts out over camp-fires and around bar-room stoves."
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