Ellis Parker Butler (December 5, 1869 – September 13, 1937) was an American author. He was the author of more than 30 books and more than 2,000 stories and essays and is most famous for his

short story A short story is a piece of prose fiction. It can typically be read in a single sitting and focuses on a self-contained incident or series of linked incidents, with the intent of evoking a single effect or mood. The short story is one of the old ...

Pigs Is Pigs "Pigs Is Pigs" is a story by American writer Ellis Parker Butler. First published as a short story in ''The American Magazine, American Illustrated Magazine'' in September 1905, "Pigs Is Pigs" went on to dozens of printings as a book and in an ...

", in which a bureaucratic stationmaster insists on levying the livestock rate for a shipment of two pet guinea pigs, which soon start proliferating exponentially. His most famous character was Philo Gubb. His career spanned more than forty years, and his stories, poems, and articles were published in more than 225 magazines. His work appeared alongside that of his contemporaries, including

Mark Twain Samuel Langhorne Clemens (November 30, 1835 – April 21, 1910), known by the pen name Mark Twain, was an American writer, humorist, and essayist. He was praised as the "greatest humorist the United States has produced," with William Fau ...

Sax Rohmer Arthur Henry "Sarsfield" Ward (15 February 1883 – 1 June 1959), better known as Sax Rohmer, was an English novelist. He is best remembered for his series of novels featuring the master criminal Fu Manchu."Rohmer, Sax" by Jack Adrian in David ...

, James B. Hendryx, Berton Braley,

F. Scott Fitzgerald Francis Scott Key Fitzgerald (September 24, 1896 – December 21, 1940), widely known simply as Scott Fitzgerald, was an American novelist, essayist, and short story writer. He is best known for his novels depicting the flamboyance and exces ...

Don Marquis Donald Robert Perry Marquis ( ; July 29, 1878 – December 29, 1937) was an American humorist, journalist, and author. He was variously a novelist, poet, newspaper columnist, and playwright. He is remembered best for creating the characters A ...

Will Rogers William Penn Adair Rogers (November 4, 1879 – August 15, 1935) was an American vaudeville performer, actor, and humorous social commentator. He was born as a citizen of the Cherokee Nation, in the Indian Territory (now part of Oklahoma ...

, and

Edgar Rice Burroughs Edgar Rice Burroughs (September 1, 1875 – March 19, 1950) was an American writer, best known for his prolific output in the adventure, science fiction, and fantasy genres. Best known for creating the characters Tarzan (who appeared in ...

. Despite the enormous volume of his work, Butler was, for most of his life, only a part-time author. He worked full-time as a banker and was very active in his local community. A founding member of both the

Dutch Treat Club The Dutch Treat Club is a society of illustrators, writers and performers based in New York City. Primarily social in nature, the club has had as members such leading literary figures and humorists as Robert Benchley, Rube Goldberg, Robert M. McBr ...

and the

Authors League of America The Authors Guild is the United States' oldest and largest professional organization for writers and provides advocacy on issues of free expression and copyright protection. Since its founding in 1912 as the Authors League of America, it has coun ...

, Butler was an always-present force in the New York City literary scene.

Early life and education

Butler was born in

Muscatine, Iowa Muscatine ( ) is a city in and the county seat of Muscatine County, Iowa, United States. The population was 23,797 at the time of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, an increase from 22,697 in 2000 United States Census, 2000. It is loca ...

, on December 5, 1869. He attended Muscatine High School for one year.

Career

He moved to

New York City New York, often called New York City (NYC), is the most populous city in the United States, located at the southern tip of New York State on one of the world's largest natural harbors. The city comprises five boroughs, each coextensive w ...

and lived in

Flushing Flushing may refer to: Places Netherlands * Flushing, Netherlands, an English name for the city of Vlissingen, Netherlands United Kingdom * Flushing, Cornwall, a village in Cornwall, England * The Flushing, a building in Suffolk, England ...

(

Queens Queens is the largest by area of the Boroughs of New York City, five boroughs of New York City, coextensive with Queens County, in the U.S. state of New York (state), New York. Located near the western end of Long Island, it is bordered by the ...

)

New York New York most commonly refers to: * New York (state), a state in the northeastern United States * New York City, the most populous city in the United States, located in the state of New York New York may also refer to: Places United Kingdom * ...

. He wrote twenty-five stories for ''

Woman's Home Companion ''Woman's Home Companion'' was an American monthly magazine, published from 1873 to 1957. It was highly successful, climbing to a circulation peak of more than four million during the 1930s and 1940s. The magazine, headquartered in Springfield, O ...

'' between 1906 and 1935. The stories in the ''Companion'' were illustrated by artists including

May Wilson Preston Mary (May) Wilson Watkins Preston (August 11, 1873May 18, 1949) was an American illustrator of books and magazines and an Impressionism, impressionist painter. She had an interest in art beginning in her teenage years, but her parents sent her ...

Frederic Dorr Steele Frederic Dorr Steele (August 6, 1873 – July 6, 1944) was an American illustrator best known for his work on Arthur Conan Doyle's Sherlock Holmes stories. Early life and education Steele was born on 6 August 1873 at Eagle Mills, near Marquette, ...

, Herbert Paus and Rico Le Brun. Between 1931 and 1936, at least seventeen of Butler's stories published in newspapers were illustrated by

Ethel Hays Ethel Hays (March 13, 1892 – March 19, 1989) was an American syndicated cartoonist specializing in flapper-themed comic strips in the 1920s and 1930s. She drew in Art Deco style. In the later part of her career, during the 1940s and 1950s, she ...

Personal life and death

He died in Williamsville, Massachusetts on September 13, 1937, and was interred in

Flushing Cemetery Flushing Cemetery is a cemetery in Flushing in the borough of Queens in New York City, New York. History Flushing Cemetery has several predecessors. In 1789 (64 years before the cemetery was founded), George Washington had crossed the East Ri ...

References

External links

* *
ebooks of works by Ellis Parker Butler
a
Project Gutenberg Australia
* * *

Podcast, now indexed for convenience * produced by the Adam Smith Academy (This link may be out of date.)

Partial archive of John Martin's online bibliography and download site. {{DEFAULTSORT:Butler, Ellis Parker 1869 births 1937 deaths 19th-century American male writers 19th-century American short story writers 20th-century American male writers 20th-century American short story writers American humorists American male short story writers Butler, Ellis People from Muscatine, Iowa Writers from Iowa