About this episode
Charles Farrar Browne is often called the first standup comedian. He was, in the 1860s, wildly famous, but his early death, and the soaring career of one of his friends, have contributed to Browne fading from the spotlight in history. Research: “Born 1834; Married 1835. Artemus Ward’s Alleged Widow Claims His Estate.” The Savannah Morning News. April 15, 1891. https://www.newspapers.com/image/852548808/?match=1&terms=artemus%20ward Britannica, The Editors of Encyclopaedia. "Artemus Ward". Encyclopedia Britannica , 22 Apr. 2024, https://www.britannica.com/biography/Artemus-Ward Dahl, Curtis. “Artemus Ward: Comic Panoramist.” The New England Quarterly , vol. 32, no. 4, 1959, pp. 476–85. JSTOR , https://doi.org/10.2307/362502 Hingston, Edward P. “The Genial Showman, Reminiscences of the Life of Artemus Ward.” London: Chatto and Windus. 1881. https://archive.org/details/genialshowmanrem00hingiala/page/n5/mode/2up Hofferth, Micah. “Charles Farrar Browne, the Sometimes-racist Father of Standup Comedy.” Vulture. Feb. 28, 2012. https://www.vulture.com/2012/02/charles-farrar-browne-the-sometimes-racist-father-of-standup-comedy.html “Mark Twain on Artemus Ward.” The Albany Evening Journal. Nov. 29, 1871. https://twain.lib.virginia.edu/roughingit/lecture/awlectaj.html Reed, John Q. “Artemus Ward’s First Lecture.” American Literature , vol. 32, no. 3, 1960, pp. 317–19. JSTOR , http://www.jstor.org/stable/2922080 Seitz, Don C. “Artemus Ward.” Harper & Brothers. 1919. Accessed online: https://archive.org/stream/artemuswardchar00seituoft/artemuswardchar00seituoft_djvu.txt “Ward, Artemus (1834-1867).” The Vault at Pfaff’s, Lehigh University. https://pfaffs.web.lehigh.edu/node/54123 Ward, Artemus. “The Complete Works of Artemus Ward.” https://www.gutenberg.org/files/6946/6946-h/6946-h.htm#bio See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.