Product Code Database
Richard Willard Armour (July 15, 1906 – February 28, 1989) was an American poet and prose writer who wrote more than 65 books.
In his early career he focused on serious literature, publishing (in 1935) a biography of the lesser English poet Bryan Waller Procter and in 1940, co-editing (with Raymond F. Howes) a series of observations by contemporaries about Samuel Taylor Coleridge, Coleridge the Talker. Virginia Woolf cited this work in an essay stating, "Two pious American editors have collected the comments of this various company Coleridge's, and they are, of course, various. Yet it is the only way of getting at the truth—to have it broken into many splinters by many mirrors and so select."Virginia Woolf, "The Man at the Gate" (1945 essay), in The Death of the Moth, and other Essays, 1961
Armour wrote humorous poems—light verse—in a style reminiscent of Ogden Nash. These poems were often featured in newspaper Sunday supplements in a feature called Armour's Armory. Many of Armour's poems have been repeatedly and incorrectly attributed to Nash. Probably Armour's most-quoted poem (often incorrectly attributed to Nash) is the quatrain: "Shake and shake / the catsup bottle / none will come / and then a lot'll." Another popular quatrain of his, also usually attributed erroneously to Nash, is: "Nothing attracts / the mustard from wieners / as much as the slacks / just back from the cleaners."
Armour also wrote satirical books, such as Twisted Tales from Shakespeare, and his ersatz history of the United States, It All Started With Columbus. These books were typically filled with puns and plays on words, and gave the impression of someone who had not quite been paying attention in class, thus also getting basic facts not quite right, to humorous effect.
As an example: "In an attempt to take Baltimore, the British attacked Fort McHenry, which protected the harbor. Bombs were soon bursting in air, rockets were glaring, and all in all it was a moment of great historical interest. During the bombardment, a young lawyer named Francis "Off" Key wrote The Star-Spangled Banner, and when, by the dawn's early light, the British heard it sung, they fled in terror."
It All Started with Europa begins in the wilderness full of "fierce animals ready to spring and fierce birds ready to chirp."
It All Started with Marx includes the rabble-rousing Lenin declaring in public "Two pants with every suit!," "Two suits with every pants!" and "The Tsar is a tsap!"
It All started with Eve quotes Napoleon as writing in a letter "Do you miss me? I hope the enemy artillery does."
His book The Classics Reclassified includes take-offs on works such as The Iliad, Julius Caesar by William Shakespeare, David Copperfield by Charles Dickens, etc.; each take-off is prefaced by a short biography of the work's author in the same style. For Shakespeare, it says he "was baptism April 26, 1564. When he was born is disputed, but anyone who argues that it was after this date is just being difficult."
Armour's books are typically written in a style parodying dull academic tomes, with many footnotes (funny in themselves), fake bibliographies, quiz sections, and glossaries. This style was pioneered by the British humorists W. C. Sellar and R. J. Yeatman with their parody of British history 1066 and All That in the 1930s.
A preface of one book noted "The reader will not encounter any half-truths, but may occasionally encounter a truth-and-a-half."
| Bryan Waller Procter |
| Bryan Waller Procter |
| Co-edited with Raymond F. Howes |
| Stage play (life of John Milton), with Bown Adams |
| American history |
| European history |
| History of women |
| Parody |
| History of communism |
| Autobiography |
| Famous books (parody) |
| Humorous "advice" for dealing with teenagers |
| American literature |
| Children's book, illustrated by Leonard Everett Fisher, Woodbridge Press, California |
| Children's book |
| Children's book |
| Higher education |
| Medicine |
| Children's book |
| Warfare and weaponry |
| Children's book |
| Children's book |
| English literature |
| Children's book |
| Children's book |
| Children's book |
| With drawings by Leo Hershfield. New York, McGraw-Hill, |
| About Bryan Waller Procter/Barry Cornwall |
| Humorous look at higher learning. William Morrow and Company, Inc., |
| Humorous look at aging. McGraw-Hill |
| Children's book, illustrated by Paul Galdone |
| Librarians. Written with and Campbell Grant |
| Art appreciation. Illustrated by Campbell Grant. |
| Children's book |
| Children's book, illustrated by Paul Galdone |
| Education (serious) |
| Children's book |
| To man, gloomily | 1950 | ||
To Groucho
Most poets write of Meadowlarks I sing instead of Groucho Marx His lustrous eyes, each like a star His noble brow, his sweet cigar His manly stride, his soft moustache His easy way with sponsors' cash His massive shoulders, brawny arms His intellect, his many charms In short, unless the truth I stray from A man to keep your wife away from.
He also recited a couple of other humorous poems on the program.
|
|
