David Maister

Tuesdays, February 7-March 27 1:00-3:00 p.m. 8 sessions
Prescott House, 55 Beacon Street

This seminar, repeated from the fall semester, is an introduction to a broad array of humorous writers. We will begin with Don Marquis (Archie & Mehitabel), Finley Peter Dunne (Mr. Dooley) and Will Rogers. We will then focus on the members of the Algonquin Round Table (The Vicious Circle), including Dorothy Parker, Robert Benchley, Alexander Woollcott, and George S. Kaufman.

We will extend our review to the New Yorker writers (especially James Thurber, S.J. Perelman, E.B. White, Ogden Nash and Phyllis McGinley) and their contemporaries, such as Anita Loos (“Gentlemen Prefer Blondes”), Leo Rosten (The Education of H*Y*M*A*N K*A*P*L*A*N) and Colonel Snoopnagel. We will also examine the vaudeville and comic movie performers of the era: the Marx Brothers, George Burns and Gracie Allen, Mae West and W.C. Fields.

Together, we will read aloud poems and short stories (including old familiar friends and forgotten obscurities), exchange our favorite quips and quotes from the wits, and play a few of the word games favored by these authors. I’ll also provide some biographical background on each of the authors, so we can relate the work to the life (and vice versa).

Our main text for the seminar will be a 1989 anthology Laughing Matters, edited by Gene Shalit. Although long out of print, I have purchased enough (new, nearly new and very good used) copies for each class participant. I will hand them out during the first class, at a cost of $10.00 each. You will be asked to bring this book to every class, so we can all share in the reading (and selection) of the best poems and stories from the same text.

The book will be supplemented with handouts of additional works in the public domain. We will also show short clips of films made by or about these authors, or clips from films based on their works. Because of the volume of games, announcements, handouts, videos, and other communications, access to the Internet will be necessary for full participation in this course.

David Maister

David Maister, born in the UK, spent every spare moment of his younger years in the American Humor section of the public libraries near his home. He has lived in the US for nearly 40 years. He holds degrees from the University of Birmingham (England), the London School of Economics, and Harvard Business School, where he was on the faculty for seven years. For 25 years he was a management consultant to professional service firms worldwide, and retired in 2009.