Oliver Herford

Oliver Herford (1863-1935) was an American poet, humorist, and illustrator who has been called "America's Oscar Wilde".

Oliver Herford (1863-1935). Courtesy Neverpedia.

Life

As a frequent contributor to The Mentor, Life, and Ladies' Home Journal, he sometimes signed his artwork as "O Herford". In 1906 he wrote and illustrated the "Little Book of Bores". He also wrote short poems like "The Chimpanzee" and "The Hen", as well as writing and illustrating The Rubaiyat of a Persian Kitten (1904) and "Excuse It Please" (1930). His sister Beatrice Herford was also a humorist.

Ethel Mumford and Addison Mizner wrote a small book The Cynic's Calendar of Revised Wisdom for 1903 as a Christmas present and added Herford's name as an author as a joke. The printer made up more copies to sell and to everyone's surprise it was an astounding success. When Herford found out about it he wanted 90% of the royalties. He was awarded an equal third.

Quotations

• "A woman's mind is cleaner than a man's: she changes it more often."(Citation needed)
• "If you want to sacrifice the admiration of many men for the criticism of one; go ahead, get married."(Citation needed)
• "Many are called but few get up."(Citation needed)
• "Only the young die good."(Citation needed)
• "Tact: to lie about others as you would have them lie about you."(Citation needed)
• "What is my loftiest ambition? I've always wanted to throw an egg into an electric fan."(Citation needed)
• "The Irish gave the bagpipes to the Scots as a joke, but the Scots haven't seen the joke yet."
• "A man is known by the silence he keeps."

Publications

Poetry

• Pen and Inklings. New York: G.M. Allen, 1893.
• An Alphabet of Celebrities]. Boston: Small, Maynard, 1899.
• Overheard in a Garden, et cetera. New York: Scribner, 1900.
• The Rubaiyat of a Persian Kitten. New York: Scribner, 1904.
• A Little Book of Bores. New York: Scribner, 1906.
• The Smoker's Yearbook. New York: Moffat, Yard, 1908.
• The Mythological Zoo. New York: Scribner, 1912.
• Happy Days (with John Cecil Clay). New York: M. Kennerley, 1917.
• The Laughing Willow: Verses and pictures. New York: George H. Doran, 1918.
• Excuse it, Please (mainly in verse). Philadelphia & London: J.B. Lippincott, 1920.
• The Herford Aesop: Fifty fables in verse. Boston & New York: Ginn, 1921.
• Poems from "Life". New York: Macmillan, 1923.

Plays

• McAdam and Eve: A musical fantasy in three acts. New York: Scribner, 1900.

Non-fiction

• Cupid's Almanac and guide to hearticulture (with John Cecil Clay). Boston & New York: Houghton Mifflin, 1908.
• The Simple Jography; or, How to know the earth and why it spins. Boston: John W.Luce, 1908.
• The Astonishing Tale of a Pen-And-Ink Puppet; or. The genteel art of illustrating. New York: Scribner, 1907; London: T. Werner Laurie, 1908.
• Cupid's Cyclopedia (with John Cecil Clay). New York: Scribner, 1910.
• Confessions of a Caricaturist. New York: Scribner, 1917.
• This Giddy Globe (as "Peter Simple, F.T.G."). New York: George H. Doran, 1919.
• Neither Here nor There. New York: George H. Doran, 1922.
• What'll you Have? (with Karl Schmidt). New York: Holt, 1925.

Juvenile

• Artful Anticks. New York: Century, 1894.
• The Bashful Earthquake, and other fables and verses. New York: Scribner, 1898.
• A Child's Primer of Natural History. New York: Scribner, 1899.
• More Animals. New York: Scribner, 1901.
• The Fairy Godmother-in-law. New York: Scribner, 1905.
• The Peter Pan Alphabet. New York: Scribner, 1911.
• The Kitten's Garden of Verses. New York: Scribner, 1911.
• The Most Timid in the Land: A bunny romance (illustrated by Sylvia Long). San Francisco, CA: Chronicle Books, 1992.

Other

with Addison Mizner and Ethel Mumford

• The Cynic's Calendar of Revised Wisdom for 1903. Boston: P. Elder & M. Shepard, 1902.
• The Limerick Up to Date Book (1903)
• The Cynic's Calendar of Revised Wisdom for 1904 (1903)
• The Entirely New Cynic's Calendar of Revised Wisdom for 1905. San Francisco, CA: Paul Elder, 1904.
• The Complete Cynic's Calendar of Revised Wisdom for 1906. San Francisco, CA: Paul Elder, 1905.
• The Altogether New Cynic's Calendar of Revised Wisdom for 1907. San Francisco, CA: Paul Elder, 1906.
• The Quite New Cynic's Calendar of Revised Wisdom for 1908. SAn Francisco, CA, & New York: Paul Elder, 1907.
• The Perfectly Good Cynic's Calendar. San Francisco: Paul Elder, 1908.
• The Complete Cynic. San Francisco, CA: Paul Elder, 1910.
• The Revived Cynic's Calendar. San Francisco, CA: Paul Elder, 1917.

  

  Earth by Oliver Herford

Except where noted, bibliographical information courtesy WorldCat.

See also

• List of U.S. poets

External links

Poems

• "I Heard a Bird Sing"
• Oliver Herford in An American Anthology, 1788-1900: "Proem," "A Belated Violet," "The Elf and the Dormouse," "The Mon-Goos," "Why Ye Blossom Cometh Before Ye Leafe"
• Oliver Herford at Poets' Corner (7 poems)
• A Selection of Kitten Verse by Oliver Herford
• Oliver Herford at Your Writing.
• Oliver Herford at PoemHunter (36 poems)
• Oliver Herford at Public Domain Poetry (132 poems)

Quotes

• Collected quotations
• Herford, Worldofquotes.com

Books

• Oliver Herford at the Online Books Page
• Works by Oliver Herford at Project Gutenberg
• The Rubaiyat of a Persian Kitten - The whole book, with art
• Oliver Herford at Amazon.com

About

• Oliver Herford at Neverpedia
• Oliver Herford (1863-1935) at American Art Archives.com