Will Cuppy Biography and List of Works

American humorist and journalist. Cuppy was best known for his mock-scientific observations of nature, and one of his favourite places for observation was the Bronx Zoo. His method was to read as much as possible about his subject, then write an essay of about two pages. Cuppy satirized with his dry and subtle humour everything from arrogant experts to modern society and popular culture.

"It's easy to see the faults in people I know; it's hardest to see the good. Especially when the good isn't there."

Will Cuppy was born in Auburn, Indiana. His father, Thomas Jefferson Cuppy, was a lumber buyer for a railroad. In his childhood young Will spent happy summers on the Cuppy farm near South Whitely, where he acquired his first knowledge of nature. He attended the Auburn public schools and in 1902 he entered the University of Chicago. During these years Cuppy worked as a reporter for several Chicago newspapers and studied literature. He graduated in 1907 and continued his studies for Ph.D. In 1914 he decided to settle for an M.A. degree and moved to New York.

"Etiquette means behaving yourself a little better than is absolutely essential."

As a writer Cuppy made his debut with MAROON TALES, which appeared in 1910. It was written while he was in graduate school. The collection included eight stories about college and fraternity life. Nineteen years later appeared HOW TRO BE HERMIT (1929), which was based on Cuppy's experiences on Jones Island, off Long Island.

Most of the stories in HOW TO TELL YOUR FRIENDS FROM THE APES (1931) appeared first in New Yorker. Cuppy was a book reviewer for the old New York Herald-Tribune - the column was published under the title 'Mystery and Adventure'. He also wrote for the Saturday Evening Post.

Cuppy's lifestyle was reclusive. He had a city apartment in Greenwich Village, where he did his writing at night. "I do not travel. I am not much of an extrovert, and I'm not much interested in extroverted objects. I do not care for the 'ideas' of novelists. Novels are wonderful, of course, but I prefer newspapers." (from World Authors 1900-1950, see below). Cuppy became in the 1930s a well-known figure in New York literary circles. In the 1940s he edited three collections of crime and mystery stories.

Cuppy died on September 19, in 1949. He was buried in Auburn's Evergreen Cemetery next to his mother, Frances Stahl Cuppy. In mid-1980s Cuppy's readers placed a new headstone for his grave, to honor the memory of the writer.

In 1950 appeared posthumously Cuppy's THE DECLINE AND FALL OF PRACTICALLY EVERYBODY, which was edited by his friend Fred Feldkamp. The well-planned and researched book went through the great historical figures from ancient Egypt to Queen Victoria. Feldkamp also edited HOW TO GET FROM JANUARY TO DECEMBER (1951). Cuppy's quotations have appeared in several anthologies, among others in The Wordsworth Dictionary of Quotations, and his satirical works are still on print.

"Henry VIII had so many wives because his dynastic sense was very strong whenever he saw a maid of honour."

For further reading: World Authors 1900-1950, ed. by Martin Seymour-Smith and Andrew C. Kimmens (1996); Contemporary Authors Vol. 108, (1983); The American Humorist by N.W. Yeats (1964) - See also: Charles Nordhoff

MAROON TALES, (1910)