Shaw, Henry Wheeler (1818-1885) Essayist, Journalist, Lecturer, Poet, Travel Writer. Henry Wheeler Shaw was one of the "brightest and most popular humorous men of the day" (J. Derby 239). He was best known as a talented "humorist, a homespun philospher [sic], and a conscious literary artist. One of his chief strengths was originality; in such a graphic epigram as ’when a feller gits a goin down hil, it dus seem as tho evry thing had bin greased for the okashun,’ even the deliberate misspellings fade into the background behind the compelling image" (Kesterson). At age seventeen, Shaw began a ten year exploration of western portions of the United States. In 1845 he returned to Lanesboro, Massachusetts and married Zilpha Bradford. The couple moved repeatedly during the next nine years while Shaw worked as a farmer and a coal miner before settling in Poughkeepsie, New York.
In his free time, Shaw began submitting humorous essays to local newspapers using various pseudonyms. He finally found success as “Josh Billings.” In 1864 Shaw published “Essa on the Muel, bi Josh Billings.” It was “a piece that employed misspellings and faulty grammar in the mode of Artemus Ward’s writings” (Kesterson). At this point Shaw’s work was in high demand and, with the help of Artemus Ward (Charles Farrar Browne), he published Josh Billings, Hiz Sayings in 1865. A few years later Shaw released Josh Billings on Ice, and Other Things (1868). Kesterson describes how "both [books] contain the aphorisms, short essays, and sketches so characteristic of Shaw’s writings [...] Written in characteristic cacography and distorted grammar, they cover every subject from beauty to boredom. They are filled with comic devices of understatement (’[I] found the ice in a slippery condition’), anticlimax (’Buty is power; but the most treacherous one i kno ov’), and antiproverbialism (’"Give me liberty, or giv me deth"--but ov the 2 I prefer the liberty’) [...] Shaw’s ’afferisms’ convey a sense of ease and spontaneity that belies the actual effort and time that went into their composition. He once said he worked three hours on one particular saying, just ’to get it right.’ The imagery is sharp and original, and the sayings excel in succinctness."
In 1867, Shaw moved to New York City where he wrote full-time as "Josh Billings." He had previously published in the New York Saturday Press in 1865-1866 and, after his arrival in the city, he began writing a column for the New York Weekly. His column, which was "variously called 'The Josh Billings Papers,’ 'Josh Billings’ Spice Box,’ and 'Josh Billings’ Philosophy,’” was filled with the same humorous writings that had been so popular in his books. The column ran for the remainder of Shaw’s life and was even reprinted after his death (Kesterson).
In 1869 Shaw began publishing Josh Billings’ Farmer’s Allminax. J. C. Derby calls the book a "curious commercial success" in which "he [Shaw] intended to burlesque the old fashioned Farmer’s Almanac in vogue half a century ago" (242-43). Over one hundred and thirty thousand copies of the book sold in its first year. Shaw was also kept busy by traveling around the United States as a lecturer. Kesterson explains that "Shaw’s lectures were usually on one of three topics--’Buty and the Beasts,’ ’What i Kno About Hotels,’ and the frequently given ’Milk. These were open-ended topics that allowed Shaw, in the persona of Josh Billings, much latitude."
Shaw remained active until a few months before his death. In 1885 he traveled west to California where, on October 11, he died of apoplexy. Kesterson characterizes Shaw’s "broad, classical concept of humor that matched his general philosophy of life. He interpreted his comic talent as the ability to cause a 'smile continually on the face of every human being on God’s footstool, and this smile should ever and anon widen into a broad grin’ . . . Though deep enough a thinker to ponder the failures of civilization and sometimes judge the progress of mankind with skepticism, he usually managed to override gloom with lighthearted witticisms that convinced an audience that life was worth living after all."
References & Biographical Resources
Derby, J.C. Fifty Years among Authors, Books and Publishers. New York: G. W. Carleton and Co., 1884.
He is mentioned as one of the "brightest and most popular humorous men of the day," known to rally around the book store of George W. Carleton.Derby notes that "the noonday hour frequently found most of them at Pfaff's celebrated German restuarant, in a Broadway basement, near Bleecker-street, the rendezvous at that day of the so-called Bohemians."Derby notes that his real name was Henry W. Shaw (239).
Derby writes: "Almost every newspaper in the country, publishes frequently some of the quaint sayings of 'Josh Billings,' whose real name is Henry W. Sha; the latter says, speaking of his success as an author, that he failed to succeed until he commenced to spell his words incorrectly; then his wise and sententious sayings became immensely popular.His jokes are always to the point, although told in a humorous vein."Derby notes that Carleton published "The Life and Adventures of Josh Billings" "appropriately illustrated, including many of his quaint sayings."Derby calls "Josh Billings' Farmer's Alminax" a "curious commercial success" in which "he intended to burlesque the odl fashioned Farmer's Almanac in vogue half a century ago."Over one hundred and thirty thousand copies of the book sold in its first year.According to Derby, at the time of his writing, over half a million copies have sold, netting a profit of over thirty thousand dollars for Carleton and Billings (242-243).
[pages:239,242-243]
Figaro [Clapp, Henry Jr.]. "Dramatic Feuilleton." New York Saturday Press. 20 Jan. 1866: 40-41.
Figaro makes a brief mention of "Josh Billings'" lecture tour (41).
[pages:41]
Figaro [Clapp, Henry Jr.]. "Dramatic Feuilleton." New York Saturday Press. 27 Jan. 1866: 56-57.
Figaro announces the upcoming lecutures for "Josh Billings" (57).
[pages:57]
Haynes, John Edward. Pseudonyms of Authors: Including Anonyms and Initialisms. New York, 1882.
This text identifies the following pseudonym: Josh Billings (51).
[pages:51]
"Josh Billings." New York Saturday Press. 16 Sep. 1865: 108.
"Josh Billings [from the Boston Evening Gazette Feb. 4]." New York Saturday Press. 10 Feb. 1866: 87.
Kesterson, David B. "Henry Wheeler Shaw." Dictionary of Literary Biography, Volume 11: American Humorists, 1800-1950. Ed. Stanley Trachtenberg. Detroit: Gale, 1982. 429-34.
Lause, Mark A. The Antebellum Crisis and America's First Bohemians. Kent, OH: Kent State University Press, 2009.
[pages:115]
"Literary Matters." New York Saturday Press. 13 Jan. 1866: 17.
Lukens, Henry Clay. "American Literary Comedians." Harper's New Monthly Magazine. 01 Apr. 1890: 783-797.
[pages:796]
Maurice, Arthur Bartlett. "Literary Clubland II:New York's Literary Clubs." The Bookman: A Review of Books and Life. 01 Jun. 1905: 392-406.
He is described as one of the "others who rallied" at Pfaff's.His pen name is given as "Josh Billings."
[pages:396]
Mott, Frank Luther. A History of American Magazines, Volume II: 1850-1865. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1938.
Identified as having been introduced to the American reading public under the pseudonym "Josh Billings" in The Saturday Press."Billings" was appeared in the issue that published Twain's "The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County."
[pages:40]
"Notes of the Week." New-York Saturday Press. 19 May 1866: 4.
The column reports that Carelton plans to publish a book of the humorous sayings of Josh Billings (Shaw) (4).
[pages:4]
"[Notices]." New York Saturday Press. 18 Nov. 1865: 248.
Rawson, A. L. "A Bygone Bohemia." Frank Leslie's Popular Monthly. 01 Jan. 1896: 96-107.
There is an illustration in Rawson of Josh Billings, Mark Twain, and Petroleum V. Nasby, where the three men are identified as "Three American humorists, in the Pfaffian Days" (99).
Scholnick, Robert. "The Fate of Humor in a Time of Civil and Cold War: Vanity Fair and Race." Studies in American Humor. 3.10 (2003): 21-42.
Seitz, Don Carlos. Artemus Ward (Charles Farrar Browne): A Biography and Bibliography. NY: Harper & Brothers, 1919.
[pages:325, 327, 330-332]
"The News Agents." New York Saturday Press. 23 Sep. 1865: 120.
Twain, Mark. The Autobiography of Mark Twain. Ed. Charles Neider. New York: HarperCollins, 2000.
Described as Josh Billings
[pages:211, 218, 357-58]
Wilson, James Grant and John Fiske, eds. Appletons' Cyclopaedia of American Biography, Volume V, Pickering-Sumter. New York: D. Appleton & Co., 1888.
Under Henry Wheeler Shaw
[pages:485(ill.)]