An
Outline of Humor
Being a True Chronicle From
Prehistoric Ages to the
Twentieth Century
Edited by
Carolyn Wells
Editor of
“The Book of Humorous Verse,”
“A Nonsense Anthology,” etc.
G. P. Putnam’s Sons
New York & London
The Knickerbocker Press
1923
Copyright, 1923
by
Carolyn Wells Houghton
Made in the United States of America
Dedicated
WITH
Highest Regard
TO
DOCTOR HUBER GRAY BUEHLER
[v]
FOREWORD
Outlining is a modern art. For centuries we have collected andselected, compiled and compended, but only of late have we outlined.
And an Outline is a result differing in kind from the other workmentioned, and presenting different conditions and contingencies.
An Outline, owing to its sweep of magnificent distances, can touchonly the high spots, and can but skim those. Not in its province iscriticism or exhaustive commentary. Not in its scope are long effusionsor lengthy extracts.
Nor may it include everybody or everything that logically belongs to it.
An Outline is at best an irregular proposition, and the Outliner mustfollow his irregular path as best he may. But one thing is imperative,the Outliner must be conscientious. He must weigh to the best of hisknowledge and belief the claims to inclusion that his opportunitiespresent. He must pick and choose with all the discernment of which heis capable and while following his best principles of taste he mustsink his personal preferences in his regard for his Outline as a whole.
Nor can he pick and choose his audience. To one reader,—or critic,—ahackneyed selection is tiresome, while to another it is a novelty anda revelation. And it must be remembered that a hackneyed poem is afavorite one and a favorite is one adjudged best, by a consensus ofhuman opinion, and is therefore a high spot to be touched upon.
While the Outline is generally chronological, it is not a history anddates are not given. Also, when it seemed advisable to desert thechronological path for the topographical one, that was done.
[vi]
Yet Foreign Literatures cannot be adequately treated in an Outlineprinted in English. Translations are at best misleading. If thetranslation is a poor one, the pith and moment of the original ispartly, or wholly lost. And if the translation be of great merit, thework may show the merit of the new rendition rather than the original.
And aside from all that, few translations of Humor are to be found.
The translators of foreign tongues choose first the philosophy, thefiction or the serious poetry of the other nations, leaving the humor,if any there be, to hang unplucked on the tree of knowledge.
So the foreign material is scant, but the high spots are touched as faras could be found convenient.
The Outline stops at the year 1900. Humor since then is too close to beviewed in proper perspective.
But the present Outliner mainly hopes to show how, with steadyfootstep, from the Caveman to the current comics Humor has followed theFlag.
C. W.
New