William Jacob "Will" Cuppy (August 23, 1884 – September 19, 1949) was an
AmericanThe United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
humorist and
literary criticLiterary criticism is the study, evaluation, and interpretation of literature. Modern literary criticism is often informed by literary theory, which is the philosophical discussion of its methods and goals...
, known for his
satiricalSatire is primarily a literary genre or form, although in practice it can also be found in the graphic and performing arts. In satire, vices, follies, abuses, and shortcomings are held up to ridicule, ideally with the intent of shaming individuals, and society itself, into improvement...
books about
natureNature, in the broadest sense, is equivalent to the natural world, physical world, or material world. "Nature" refers to the phenomena of the physical world, and also to life in general...
and
historical figures.
Early life
Cuppy was born in
Auburn, IndianaAuburn is a city in DeKalb County, Indiana, United States. The population was 13,086 at the 2010 census. Founded in 1836 by Wesley Park , the city is the county seat of DeKalb County. Auburn is also known as Home of the Classics.-Geography:...
. He was named "Will" in memory of an older brother of his father's who died of wounds he received as a
UnionDuring the American Civil War, the Union was a name used to refer to the federal government of the United States, which was supported by the twenty free states and five border slave states. It was opposed by 11 southern slave states that had declared a secession to join together to form the...
officer at the
Civil WarThe American Civil War was a civil war fought in the United States of America. In response to the election of Abraham Lincoln as President of the United States, 11 southern slave states declared their secession from the United States and formed the Confederate States of America ; the other 25...
Battle of Fort DonelsonThe Battle of Fort Donelson was fought from February 11 to February 16, 1862, in the Western Theater of the American Civil War. The capture of the fort by Union forces opened the Cumberland River as an avenue for the invasion of the South. The success elevated Brig. Gen. Ulysses S...
. Cuppy's father, Thomas Jefferson Cuppy (1844–1912), was at different times a grain dealer, a seller of farm implements and a lumber buyer for the
Eel River branchThe Butler Branch is a historic railroad line that operated in Indiana, USA. It ran between the city of Logansport on the Wabash River in north central Indiana and the namesake town of Butler near the Ohio border in northeastern Indiana....
of the
Wabash RailroadThe Wabash Railroad was a Class I railroad that operated in the mid-central United States. It served a large area, including trackage in the states of Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Iowa, Michigan, Missouri and Ontario. Its primary connections included Chicago, Illinois, Kansas City, Missouri, Detroit,...
. His mother, Frances Stahl Cuppy (1855–1927), was a
seamstressSewing is the craft of fastening or attaching objects using stitches made with a needle and thread. Sewing is one of the oldest of the textile arts, arising in the Paleolithic era...
and worked in a small shop located next to the family home in Auburn. Young Cuppy spent summers at a farm belonging to his grandmother, Sarah Collins Cuppy (1813–1900), on the banks of the Eel River near
South Whitley, IndianaSouth Whitley is a town in Cleveland Township, Whitley County, Indiana, United States. The population was 1,751 at the 2010 census. South Whitley is a town in the Midwestern tradition of red brick buildings and tree-lined streets.-Geography:...
. He later said that this was where he acquired his early knowledge of the natural world which he satirized in his writings.
Cuppy graduated from Auburn High School in 1902 and went on to the
University of ChicagoThe University of Chicago is a private research university in Chicago, Illinois, USA. It was founded by the American Baptist Education Society with a donation from oil magnate and philanthropist John D. Rockefeller and incorporated in 1890...
, where he received a
bachelor's degreeA bachelor's degree is usually an academic degree awarded for an undergraduate course or major that generally lasts for three or four years, but can range anywhere from two to six years depending on the region of the world...
in 1907. As an undergraduate, he belonged to
Phi Gamma DeltaThe international fraternity of Phi Gamma Delta is a collegiate social fraternity with 120 chapters and 18 colonies across the United States and Canada. It was founded at Jefferson College, Pennsylvania, in 1848, and its headquarters are located in Lexington, Kentucky, USA...
, acted in amateur theater and worked as campus reporter for several Chicago newspapers, notably the
Record HeraldThe Chicago Record Herald was a newspaper published in Chicago, Illinois from 1901 until 1914. It was the successor to the Chicago Morning Herald, the Chicago Times Herald and the Chicago Record. It was succeeded by the Chicago Herald Examiner....
and the
Daily NewsThe Chicago Daily News was an afternoon daily newspaper published between 1876 and 1978 in Chicago, Illinois.-History:The Daily News was founded by Melville E. Stone, Percy Meggy, and William Dougherty in 1875 and began publishing early the next year...
. He lingered at Chicago seven more years as a graduate student in English literature. He did not show much interest in his studies, but in 1910 produced his first book,
Maroon Tales, a collection of short stories about university life. In 1914 he pulled together a short
master'sA master's is an academic degree granted to individuals who have undergone study demonstrating a mastery or high-order overview of a specific field of study or area of professional practice...
thesisA dissertation or thesis is a document submitted in support of candidature for an academic degree or professional qualification presenting the author's research and findings...
, took his degree and left for New York.
Literary career
Cuppy supported himself in New York by writing advertising copy while he tried unsuccessfully to write a play. He served briefly stateside in
World War IWorld War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...
as a second lieutenant in the U.S. Army Motor Transport Corps. Later he began contributing book reviews to the
New York TribuneThe New York Tribune was an American newspaper, first established by Horace Greeley in 1841, which was long considered one of the leading newspapers in the United States...
, where his college friend
Burton RascoeArthur Burton Rascoe , was an American journalist, editor and literary critic of the New York Herald Tribune....
(1892–1957) was literary
editorEditing is the process of selecting and preparing written, visual, audible, and film media used to convey information through the processes of correction, condensation, organization, and other modifications performed with an intention of producing a correct, consistent, accurate, and complete...
. According to Rascoe, it was his assistant
Isabel PatersonIsabel Paterson was a Canadian-American journalist, novelist, political philosopher, and a leading literary critic of her day. Along with Rose Wilder Lane and Ayn Rand, who both acknowledged an intellectual debt to Paterson, she is one of the three founding mothers of American libertarianism...
who "coaxed and coddled" Cuppy into writing reviews and making a success of his career as a writer. In 1926, Cuppy began writing a weekly "Light Reading" column, later renamed "Mystery and Adventure", for the Tribune's successor, the
New York Herald TribuneThe New York Herald Tribune was a daily newspaper created in 1924 when the New York Tribune acquired the New York Herald.Other predecessors, which had earlier merged into the New York Tribune, included the original The New Yorker newsweekly , and the Whig Party's Log Cabin.The paper was home to...
. He continued writing the column until his death 23 years later, reviewing a career total of more than 4,000 titles of crime and detective fiction.
Seeking refuge from city noise and hay fever, Cuppy "
hermitA hermit is a person who lives, to some degree, in seclusion from society.In Christianity, the term was originally applied to a Christian who lives the eremitic life out of a religious conviction, namely the Desert Theology of the Old Testament .In the...
ed" from 1921 to 1929 in a shack on
Jones IslandJones Beach Island is one of the outer barrier islands off the southern coast of Long Island in the U.S. state of New York. It is named for the father of Thomas Jones. It is sometimes referred to as Oak Beach Island, and the former home of the infamous Oak Beach Inn. It is separated from Long...
, just off
Long IslandLong Island is an island located in the southeast part of the U.S. state of New York, just east of Manhattan. Stretching northeast into the Atlantic Ocean, Long Island contains four counties, two of which are boroughs of New York City , and two of which are mainly suburban...
's South Shore. The literary result of Cuppy's seaside exile was
How to be a Hermit, a humorous look at
home economicsHome economics is the profession and field of study that deals with the economics and management of the home and community...
that went through six printings in four months when it appeared in 1929. The book's subtitle,
A Bachelor Keeps House, reflects the fact that Cuppy never married. The crew at the nearby
Zachs Inlet Coast Guard Station shared their food and recipes with Cuppy and helped him repair his shack.
Encroachment by the new
Jones Beach State ParkJones Beach State Park is a state park of the U.S. state of New York. It is located in southern Nassau County, in the hamlet of Wantagh, on Jones Beach Island, a barrier island linked to Long Island by the Meadowbrook State Parkway, Wantagh State Parkway and Ocean Parkway .The park is renowned for...
forced Cuppy to abandon full-time residence on the island and return to New York's noise and soot. A special dispensation from New York's parks czar
Robert MosesRobert Moses was the "master builder" of mid-20th century New York City, Long Island, Rockland County, and Westchester County, New York. As the shaper of a modern city, he is sometimes compared to Baron Haussmann of Second Empire Paris, and is one of the most polarizing figures in the history of...
(1888–1981) let Cuppy keep his shack. He made regular visits to his place at the beach until the end of his life.
From his
Greenwich VillageGreenwich Village, , , , .in New York often simply called "the Village", is a largely residential neighborhood on the west side of Lower Manhattan in New York City. A large majority of the district is home to upper middle class families...
apartment, Cuppy continued to turn out magazine articles and books. He always worked from notes jotted on 3x5-inch index cards. Cuppy would amass hundreds of cards even for a short article. His friend and literary
executorAn executor, in the broadest sense, is one who carries something out .-Overview:...
Fred FeldkampFred J. Feldkamp was an American writer, editor, and film producer. He was married to Phyllis Dubsky Feldkamp, an esteemed fashion writer from the 1940's to early 90's.-Career:...
(1914–1981) reported that Cuppy sometimes read more than 25 thick books on a subject before he wrote a single word about it.
Writing funny but factual magazine articles was Cuppy's real talent. He enjoyed a brief success in 1933 with a humorous talk show on
NBCThe National Broadcasting Company is an American commercial broadcasting television network and former radio network headquartered in the GE Building in New York City's Rockefeller Center with additional major offices near Los Angeles and in Chicago...
radio, but he flopped on the lecture circuit. Basically shy, Cuppy was happiest when he was rummaging through scholarly journals prizing out facts to copy out on his note cards. According to Feldkamp, one of Cuppy's favorite places was the
Bronx ZooThe Bronx Zoo is located in the Bronx borough of New York City, within Bronx Park. It is the largest metropolitan zoo in the United States, comprising of park lands and naturalistic habitats, through which the Bronx River flows....
, "where he felt really relaxed."
Many of Cuppy's articles for
The New YorkerThe New Yorker is an American magazine of reportage, commentary, criticism, essays, fiction, satire, cartoons and poetry published by Condé Nast...
and other magazines were later collected as books:
How to Tell Your Friends from the Apes (1931); and
How to Become Extinct (1941). Cuppy also edited three collections of mystery stories:
World's Great Mystery Stories (1943);
World's Great Detective Stories (1943); and
Murder Without Tears (1946). His last animal book,
How to Attract the Wombat, appeared two months after his death in 1949.
Cuppy's best-known work, a satire on history called
The Decline and Fall of Practically Everybody, was unfinished when he died. Its humor ranges from the silliness of the remark that, when the Nile floods receded, the land, as far as the eye can see, is "covered by Egyptologists", to the detailed dissection, quotation, and parody, in the chapter on
Alexander the Great, of the picture of Alexander as an idealist for world peace. The book's appeal can be gauged by the fact that
CBSCBS Broadcasting Inc. is a major US commercial broadcasting television network, which started as a radio network. The name is derived from the initials of the network's former name, Columbia Broadcasting System. The network is sometimes referred to as the "Eye Network" in reference to the shape of...
broadcasterA presenter, or host , is a person or organization responsible for running an event. A museum or university, for example, may be the presenter or host of an exhibit. Likewise, a master of ceremonies is a person that hosts or presents a show...
Edward R. MurrowEdward Roscoe Murrow, KBE was an American broadcast journalist. He first came to prominence with a series of radio news broadcasts during World War II, which were followed by millions of listeners in the United States and Canada.Fellow journalists Eric Sevareid, Ed Bliss, and Alexander Kendrick...
and his colleague
Don HollenbeckDon Hollenbeck was a CBS newscaster and commentator and colleague of Edward R. Murrow and Fred W. Friendly. He died from natural gas inhalation as it was discovered that his stove and oven had been turned on but not lit . Consequently, Hollenbeck's death was ruled a suicide...
took turns reading from it on the air "until the announcer cracked up."
The Decline and Fall was completed and published in 1950 by Fred Feldkamp, who sifted through nearly 15,000 of Cuppy's carefully filed note cards to get the book into print within a year of his friend's death. Feldkamp also edited a second posthumous volume, a comic almanac titled
How to Get from January to December, that appeared in 1951.
Cuppy's last years were marked by poor physical health and increasing
depressionMajor depressive disorder is a mental disorder characterized by an all-encompassing low mood accompanied by low self-esteem, and by loss of interest or pleasure in normally enjoyable activities...
. Facing eviction from his apartment, he took an overdose of sleeping pills and died ten days later on September 19, 1949, at
St. Vincent's HospitalSaint Vincent Catholic Medical Centers ' was a healthcare system, anchored by its flagship hospital, St. Vincent's Hospital Manhattan, locally referred to as "St. Vincent's". St. Vincent's was founded in 1849 and closed in 2010...
.
Cuppy's cremated remains were returned to his hometown and buried in a grave next to his mother's in Evergreen Cemetery. His grave was unmarked until 1985, when local donors purchased a granite headstone with the inscription, "American Humorist". In 2003, Cuppy received another memorial when a committee of the
International Astronomical UnionThe International Astronomical Union IAU is a collection of professional astronomers, at the Ph.D. level and beyond, active in professional research and education in astronomy...
approved the name "
15017 CuppyAsteroid 15017 Cuppy, a main-belt object previously known as 1998 SS25, was discovered on September 22, 1998, by Edward L. G. Bowell of the Lowell Observatory Near-Earth-Object Search , Anderson Mesa Station. It was named in September 2003 for Will Cuppy , American humorist and journalist.-...
" for an
asteroidAsteroids are a class of small Solar System bodies in orbit around the Sun. They have also been called planetoids, especially the larger ones...
.
Although Cuppy was reclusive and cultivated the image of a curmudgeon, he had many friends in New York's literary circles. One of them was the poet
William Rose BenétWilliam Rose Benét was an American poet, writer, and editor.He was the older brother of Stephen Vincent Benét....
(1886–1950) who, writing in the
Saturday Review of Literature, penned this remembrance of him:
Cuppy documents
Cuppy's papers, including thousands of his notecards, are archived at the
University of Chicago LibraryUniversity of Chicago Library is the library of the University of Chicago, located on the university's campus in Chicago, Illinois, USA. It is one of the largest university libraries in the United States....
. A number of his letters to his friend and
Herald Tribune colleague
Isabel PatersonIsabel Paterson was a Canadian-American journalist, novelist, political philosopher, and a leading literary critic of her day. Along with Rose Wilder Lane and Ayn Rand, who both acknowledged an intellectual debt to Paterson, she is one of the three founding mothers of American libertarianism...
are among Paterson's papers archived at the
Herbert Hoover Presidential Library and MuseumThe Herbert Hoover Presidential Library and Museum is the Presidential library of Herbert Hoover, the 31st President of the United States. Located in West Branch, Iowa, next to the Herbert Hoover National Historic Site, the library is one of thirteen presidential libraries run by the National...
in
West Branch, IowaWest Branch is a city in Cedar and Johnson counties in the U.S. state of Iowa. The population was 2,342 as of July 2009, a 7% growth since the 2000 census...
.
Two of Cuppy's letters to
Max EastmanMax Forrester Eastman was an American writer on literature, philosophy and society, a poet, and a prominent political activist. For many years, Eastman was a supporter of socialism, a leading patron of the Harlem Renaissance and an activist for a number of liberal and radical causes...
are among Eastman's papers at
Indiana University'sIndiana University Bloomington is a public research university located in Bloomington, Indiana, in the United States. IU Bloomington is the flagship campus of the Indiana University system. Being the flagship campus, IU Bloomington is often referred to simply as IU or Indiana...
Lilly Library. The
Frank SullivanFrank Sullivan was an American humorist, best remembered for creating the character Mr. Arbuthnot the Cliche Expert....
Collection at
Cornell UniversityCornell University is an Ivy League university located in Ithaca, New York, United States. It is a private land-grant university, receiving annual funding from the State of New York for certain educational missions...
also contains correspondence from Cuppy. The papers of
John Towner FrederickJohn Towner Frederick , born Corning, Iowa and only child of Oliver Roberts and Mary Elmira Frederick. He was a noted professor and literary editor, scholar, critic, and novelist.-Family:...
at the
University of IowaThe University of Iowa is a public state-supported research university located in Iowa City, Iowa, United States. It is the oldest public university in the state. The university is organized into eleven colleges granting undergraduate, graduate, and professional degrees...
include letters written by Cuppy in the 1940s relating to Towner's
Of Men and Books series for CBS Radio.
Iranian controversy
A Persian translation by Najaf Daryabandari of Cuppy's
The Decline and Fall of Practically Everybody was published in 1972 under the title of
Čenin konand bozorgān (چنین کنند بزرگان,
Thus Act the Great). The good quality of the Persian prose and the fact of Cuppy's being unknown in
IranIran , officially the Islamic Republic of Iran , is a country in Southern and Western Asia. The name "Iran" has been in use natively since the Sassanian era and came into use internationally in 1935, before which the country was known to the Western world as Persia...
led to speculation that the book was not a translation, but an original book by Daryabandari and possibly a collaborator, who was speculated to be
Ahmad Shamlou. It was guessed that this had been done in order to bypass the Pahlavi era censor. Daryabandari denied it several times, even after the
Iranian RevolutionThe Iranian Revolution refers to events involving the overthrow of Iran's monarchy under Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi and its replacement with an Islamic republic under Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, the leader of the...
. The issue was not publicly settled until the satire magazine
Golagha ran an article about their "discovery" of Cuppy, which proved Daryabandari right.
Selected bibliography
- Books
- (1951) How to Get from January to December, New York: Holt. Edited by Fred Feldkamp. Illustrations by John Ruge.
- (1950) The Decline and Fall of Practically Everybody, New York: Holt. Edited by Fred Feldkamp. Illustrations by William Steig
William Steig was a prolific American cartoonist, sculptor and, later in life, an author of popular children's literature...
.
- (1949) How to Attract the Wombat, New York: Rinehart. Illustrations by Ed Nofziger.
- (1944) The Great Bustard and Other People (containing How to Tell Your Friends from the Apes and How to Become Extinct), New York : Murray Hill Books.
- (1941) How to Become Extinct, New York: Farrar and Rinehart. Illustrations by William Steig.
- (1931) How to Tell Your Friends from the Apes, New York: Horace Liveright, Inc. Introduction by P. G. Wodehouse
Sir Pelham Grenville Wodehouse, KBE was an English humorist, whose body of work includes novels, short stories, plays, poems, song lyrics, and numerous pieces of journalism. He enjoyed enormous popular success during a career that lasted more than seventy years and his many writings continue to be...
. Illustrations by "Jacks."
- (1929) How to Be a Hermit, New York: Horace Liveright.
- (1910) Maroon Tales, Chicago: Forbes & Co..
- Books, edited
- (1946) Murder Without Tears: An Anthology of Crime, New York: Sheridan House.
- (1943) World's Great Detective Stories: American and English Masterpieces, New York, Cleveland: World.
- (1943) World's Great Mystery Stories: American and English Masterpieces, New York, Cleveland: World.
- Book, contributed footnotes
- (1937) Garden Rubbish and Other Country Bumps by W. C. Sellar
Walter Carruthers Sellar was a Scottish humourist who wrote for Punch. He is best known for the 1930 book 1066 and All That, a tongue-in-cheek guide to "all the history you can remember," which he wrote together with R. J...
and R. J. YeatmanRobert Julian Yeatman was a British humorist who wrote for Punch. He is best known for the book 1066 and All That, 1930, ISBN 0-413-77270-5), a tongue-in-cheek guide to "all the history you can remember", which he wrote with W. C...
; with footnotes by Will Cuppy. New York: Farrar & Rinehart.
- Book containing articles by Will Cuppy
- (1948) The Home Book of Laughter, May Lamberton Becker
May Lamberton Becker was a journalist and literary critic. She was born in New York and at the age of 20 she married the pianist and composer Gustave A. Becker in 1893. Their only daughter Beatrice was born September 20, 1900. By 1908 the marriage had broken up and later ended in divorce...
(ed.), New York: Dodd, Mead.
- M.A. thesis completed at the University of Chicago
- (1914) The Elizabethan Conception of Prose Style.
External links