Artemus Ward: (1834-1867) American Humorist Writer

Artemus Ward was the penname of Charles Farrar Browne who was born April 26, 1834 in Waterford, Maine. He was apprenticed at age 13 to a printer, where he set type for several newspapers in New England before a Boston print shop hired him in 1851.

In 1853 he became an editor on the Toledo Commercial; between 1857 and 1861 he was an editor of the Cleveland Plain Dealer, where the first of the "Artemus Ward " series were published.

Among his many readers was Abraham Lincoln, who read one of Ward's pieces to his Cabinet the day he presented the Emancipation Proclamation, and Mark Twain.

In 1866 he visited England, where he became exceedingly popular both as a lecturer.  In the spring of the following year his health gave way and he died of consumption at Southampton on the 6th of March 1867.

Photographs:

Artemus Ward Bust

Further Reading:

Dan Chabek, Lakewood Historical Society, The Buckeye Chronicles, Artemus Ward

Project Gutenberg, The Complete Works of Artemus Ward

Wikimedia Foundation, Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia, Artemus Ward

Love To Know 1911 Online Encyclopedia, Artemus Ward