American wit and humor books

Comic History of the United States

Bill Nye

Bill Nye’s Comic History of the United States is a illustrated survey that treats American events as a series…

Jokes For All Occasions Selected and Edited by One of America's Foremost Public Speakers

Anonymous

This volume is a compendium of jokes, witticisms, and anecdotes assembled under the banner of “American wit…

Fibble, D.D.

Irvin S. Cobb

The work is a comic sketch in the guise of a memoir, presented as the first‑person account of a…

Little Masterpieces of American Wit and Humor, Volume I

This anthology gathers the most representative pieces of American wit, from the celebrated sketches of…

This Giddy Globe

Oliver Herford

This work is a whimsical, mock‑geography that treats the planet as a comic character rather than a scientific…

Fables in Slang

George Ade

George Ade’s Fables in Slang is a mischievous collection that blends the traditional moral tale with the…

Grimm Tales Made Gay

Guy Wetmore Carryl

Grimm Tales Made Gay is a humor‑infused reworking of familiar fairy‑tale motifs, assembled by Guy Wetmore…

More toasts: Jokes, stories and quotations

More Toasts is a supplemental anthology of jokes, quotations and short stories aimed at the modern…

Remarks

Bill Nye

Bill Nye’s “Remarks” is a self‑styled compendium of wit, anecdote, and assorted observations, presented as…

The early worm

Robert Benchley

Robert Benchley’s “The Early Worm” is a sprawling satire that opens with a mock‑sermon to freshly graduated…

The American Credo A Contribution Toward the Interpretation of the National Mind

Nathan, George Jean; Mencken, H. L.

The work is a polemical essay that treats the American national character as a subject for sociological and…

This Simian World

Clarence Day

This work is a satirical essay that riffs on the relationship between humanity and its animal ancestors,…

English as She is Wrote Showing Curious Ways in which the English Language may be made to Convey Ideas or obscure them.

Anonymous

English as She is Wrote is a whimsical anthology that gathers together a kaleidoscope of mis‑spelled notices,…

The Wit and Humor of America, Volume X (of X)

The volume gathers a miscellany of American wit, ranging from a rustic verse about a diligent father and his…

A laugh a day keeps the doctor away

Irvin S. Cobb

Irvin S. Cobb’s A Laugh a Day Keeps the Doctor Away is a collection of short, anecdotal jokes that he treats…

The Humorous Poetry of the English Language; from Chaucer to Saxe

This volume is a curated anthology of English‑language humorous verse, spanning from medieval poets such as…

The Seven Lively Arts

Gilbert Seldes

Gilbert Seldes’s The Seven Lively Arts is a nonfiction meditation on the early American entertainment scene,…

Toaster's Handbook: Jokes, Stories, and Quotations

The handbook presents itself as a practical rescue kit for anyone who must deliver a toast on short notice,…

The So-called Human Race

Bert Leston Taylor

The So‑Called Human Race is a collection of witty snippets, quips and short observations that originally…

The Complete Works of Josh Billings

Josh Billings

The Complete Works of Josh Billings gathers the prolific output of Henry W.

The young immigrunts

Ring Lardner

The Sunny Side of the Street

Marshall P. Wilder

Humorous Masterpieces from American Literature

The Complete Works of Artemus Ward (HTML edition)

Artemus Ward