Will Cuppy | |
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 Cuppy high school graduation picture, 1902 | |
| Born | William Jacob Cuppy (1884-08-23)August 23, 1884 Auburn, Indiana, US |
| Died | September 19, 1949(1949-09-19) (aged 65) New York City, US |
| Occupation | Satirist, book reviewer |
| Alma mater | University of Chicago |
| Genre | Humor, satire |
| Notable works | The Decline and Fall of Practically Everybody,How to Be a Hermit,How to Become Extinct,How to Tell Your Friends from the Apes,How to Attract the Wombat |
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William Jacob Cuppy (August 23, 1884 – September 19, 1949) was an Americanhumorist andliterary critic, known for hissatirical books aboutnature andhistorical figures.
Cuppy was born inAuburn, Indiana. He was named "Will" in memory of an older brother of his father's who died of wounds he received as aUnion officer at theCivil WarBattle of Fort Donelson.[1][2] Cuppy's father, Thomas Jefferson Cuppy (1844–1912), was at different times a grain dealer, a seller offarm implements and a lumber buyer for theEel River branch of theWabash Railroad. His mother, Frances Stahl Cuppy (1855–1927), was aseamstress and worked in a small shop located next to the family home in Auburn.[3] Young Cuppy spent summers at a farm belonging to his grandmother, Sarah Collins Cuppy (1813–1900), on the banks of theEel River nearSouth Whitley, Indiana. He later said that this was where he acquired his early knowledge of the natural world which he satirized in his writings.[4]
Cuppy graduated from Auburn High School in 1902 and went on to theUniversity of Chicago, where he received abachelor's degree in 1907. As an undergraduate, he belonged toPhi Gamma Delta, acted in amateur theater and worked as campus reporter for several Chicago newspapers, notably theRecord Herald and theDaily News. He lingered at Chicago seven more years as agraduate student in English literature. He did not show much interest in his studies, but in 1910 produced his first book,Maroon Tales, a collection of short stories about university life. In 1914 he pulled together a short master'sthesis,[5] took his degree and left for New York.
Cuppy supported himself in New York by writing advertising copy while he tried unsuccessfully to write a play.[6] He served briefly stateside inWorld War I as asecond lieutenant in theU.S. Army Motor Transport Corps.[7] Later he began contributing book reviews to theNew York Tribune, where his college friendBurton Rascoe (1892–1957) was literaryeditor.[8] According to Rascoe, it was his assistantIsabel Paterson who "coaxed and coddled" Cuppy into writing reviews and making a success of his career as a writer.[9] In 1926, Cuppy began writing a weekly "Light Reading" column, later renamed "Mystery and Adventure", for the Tribune's successor, theNew York Herald Tribune. He continued writing the column until his death 23 years later, reviewing a career total of more than 4,000 titles of crime and detective fiction.[10]
Seeking refuge from city noise and hay fever (which he referred to as "rose cold"), Cuppy "hermited" from 1921 to 1929 in a shack onJones Island, just offLong Island's South Shore. The literary result of Cuppy's seaside exile wasHow to be a Hermit, a humorous look athome economics that went through six printings in four months when it appeared in 1929. The book's subtitle,A Bachelor Keeps House, reflects the fact that Cuppy never married. The crew at the nearbyZachs Inlet Coast Guard Station shared their food and recipes with Cuppy and helped him repair his shack.[11]
Encroachment by the newJones Beach State Park forced Cuppy to abandon full-time residence on the island and return to New York's noise and soot. A special dispensation from New York's parksczarRobert Moses (1888–1981) let Cuppy keep his shack. He made regular visits to his place at the beach until the end of his life.[12]
From hisGreenwich Village apartment, Cuppy continued to turn out magazine articles and books. He always worked from notes jotted on 3x5-inch index cards. Cuppy would amass hundreds of cards even for a short article. His friend and literaryexecutorFred Feldkamp (1914–1981) reported that Cuppy sometimes read more than 25 thick books on a subject before he wrote a single word about it.[13]
| External images | |
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 https://www.ancestry.com/mediaui-viewer/tree/5352750/person/-1465620075/media/5cebf719-7891-4c44-bfed-36b404d23b0f 1932 promotional photo of Will Cuppy. | |
| https://www.ancestry.com/mediaui-viewer/tree/5352750/person/-1465620075/media/d7fbf270-6065-478d-b010-beee6699e5f4 The link is to an image of Will Cuppy that appeared inPublishers Weekly in 1937. The picture is from aBobbs-Merrill party forMarjorie Hillis, author ofOrchids on Your Budget, which became the number-five nonfiction bestseller of 1937. Shown from left to right are: 1) an unidentified model dressed as "Miss R," one of the "case histories" in the book; 2) Marjorie Hillis; 3) Will Cuppy (standing); and 4) authorConstance Lindsay Skinner. | |
| https://www.ancestry.com/mediaui-viewer/tree/5352750/person/-1465620075/media/1ade8c52-d5a4-4486-958a-f45c5494c87f The link is to an image of Will Cuppy that appeared on the dust jacket of the first edition ofThe Decline and Fall of Practically Everybody. It is captioned, "One of the last photographs taken of Will Cuppy in his New York City apartment." | |
| https://www.ancestry.com/mediaui-viewer/tree/5352750/person/-1465620075/media/afa6c7b1-9806-4593-9007-4edf7d42a20d Will Cuppy discussing mystery stories onJohn Towner Frederick's "Of Men and Books" radio program in 1942. | |
| http://earchives.lib.purdue.edu/cdm4/item_viewer.php?CISOROOT=/earhart&CISOPTR=3585&CISOBOX=1&REC=4 The link is to an image of a telegram from Will Cuppy received byAmelia Earhart in London on May 22, 1932, after she flew solo across the Atlantic. |
Writing funny but factual magazine articles was Cuppy's real talent. He enjoyed a brief success in 1933 with a humorous talk show onNBC radio with actress and gourmet cook Jeanne Owen,[14] but he flopped on the lecture circuit.[15] Basically shy, Cuppy was happiest when he was rummaging through scholarly journals prizing out facts to copy out on his note cards. According to Feldkamp, one of Cuppy's favorite places was theBronx Zoo, "where he felt really relaxed."[16]
Many of Cuppy's articles forThe New Yorker and other magazines were later collected as books:How to Tell Your Friends from the Apes (1931); andHow to Become Extinct (1941). Cuppy also edited three collections of mystery stories:World's Great Mystery Stories (1943);World's Great Detective Stories (1943); andMurder Without Tears (1946). His last animal book,How to Attract the Wombat, appeared two months after his death in 1949.
Cuppy's best-known work, a satire on history calledThe Decline and Fall of Practically Everybody, was unfinished when he died. Its humor ranges from the remark that, when the Nile floods receded, the land, as far as the eye can see, is "covered by Egyptologists", to the detailed dissection, quotation, and parody, in the chapter onAlexander the Great, of the picture of Alexander as an idealist for world peace. The book's appeal can be gauged by the fact thatCBSbroadcasterEdward R. Murrow and his colleagueDon Hollenbeck took turns reading from it on the air "until the announcer cracked up."[17]
The Decline and Fall was completed and published in 1950 by Fred Feldkamp, who sifted through nearly 15,000 of Cuppy's carefully filed note cards to get the book into print within a year of his friend's death. Feldkamp also edited a second posthumous volume, a comic almanac titledHow to Get from January to December, that appeared in 1951.
Cuppy's last years were marked by poor physical health and increasing depression. Facing eviction from his apartment, he took an overdose of sleeping pills and died ten days later on September 19, 1949, atSt. Vincent's Hospital.[18]
Cuppy's cremated remains were returned to his hometown and buried in a grave next to his mother's in Evergreen Cemetery. His grave was unmarked until 1985, when local donors purchased a granite headstone with the inscription, "American Humorist". In 2003, Cuppy received another memorial when a committee of theInternational Astronomical Union approved the name "15017 Cuppy" for anasteroid.[19] In 2019, theIndiana Historical Bureau approved placing a state historic marker at Cuppy's family home in Auburn.[20]
Although Cuppy was reclusive and cultivated the image of a curmudgeon, he had many friends in New York's literary circles. One of them was the poetWilliam Rose Benét (1886–1950) who, writing in theSaturday Review of Literature, penned this remembrance of him:
He had the haunted look of the true humorist. All his friends loved him.[21]
Cuppy's papers, including thousands of his notecards, are archived at theUniversity of Chicago Library.[22] A number of his letters to his friend andHerald Tribune colleagueIsabel Paterson are among Paterson's papers archived at theHerbert Hoover Presidential Library and Museum inWest Branch, Iowa.[23] Two of Cuppy's letters toMax Eastman are among Eastman's papers atIndiana University'sLilly Library.[24] TheFrank Sullivan Collection atCornell University also contains correspondence from Cuppy.[25] The papers ofJohn Towner Frederick at theUniversity of Iowa include letters written by Cuppy in the 1940s relating to Frederick'sOf Men and Books series forCBS Radio.[26] Four letters from Cuppy to children's authorAnne Carroll Moore are among her papers at theNew York Public Library[27]
A Persian translation byNajaf Daryabandari of Cuppy'sThe Decline and Fall of Practically Everybody was published in 1972 under the title ofČenin konand bozorgān (چنین کنند بزرگان,Thus Act the Great).[28] The good quality of the Persian prose and the fact of Cuppy's being unknown inIran led to speculation that the book was not a translation, but an original book by Daryabandari and possibly a collaborator, who was speculated to beAhmad Shamlou. It was guessed that this had been done in order to bypass thePahlavi era censor. Daryabandari denied it several times, even after theIranian Revolution. The issue was not publicly settled until the satire magazineGolagha ran an article about their "discovery" of Cuppy, which proved Daryabandari right.[citation needed]
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