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Re: Will Cuppy
Posted By: Tom, on host 205.188.209.76
Date: Sunday, September 15, 2002, at 11:32:37
In Reply To: Re: Will Cuppy posted by Howard on Monday, August 2, 1999, at 20:20:00:

> > > Everytime somebody mentions wombats, I have to mention author Will Cuppy. He liked to write about the little critters and he was very funny.
> > > Cuppy passed away in 1949
> > > Howard
> >
> > Say, Howard,
> > Can you give me any leads as to a bio or list of works of Will Cuppy. I've been reading The Decline and Fall of Practically Everybody and love it badly. Was he linked with Benchley, Parker, Thurber, and the rest? Help if you can!
> > Wonderingly,
> > David
> Gosh, David, I don't think I can. My sister suggested that I look him up and I went to the card catalog and looked him up. The library at MTSC had about five of his books and I read them all. But that was 1954 and I don't remember much, except that he was full of funny stories and a bunch of them included wombats. I couldn't have told you the title of The Rise and Fall of Practically Everybody. Have you tried the card catalog(or whatever they use for one these days)?
> Howard

For anyone interested in the life of Will Cuppy, one of the greatest - and tragically neglected - American humorists, I can recommend my own biographical afterword to the 1984 David R. Godine paperback reprint of Cuppy's Decline and Fall of Practically Everybody. Aside from this fairly brief treatment, nothing has been written about Cuppy's life, though the library at the University of Chicago (Cuppy's alma mater) did a small exhibit on him a decade or so ago.