George William Bagby

George William Bagby (13 August 1828 – 29 November 1883) was an American humorist born in Buckingham County, Virginia to George Bagby and Virginia Evans. He attended Delaware College and the University of Pennsylvania, where he studied medicine. Afterwards, he became engaged in editorial work, especially on the "Southern Literary Messenger", from 1859 to near the close of the American Civil War. Subsequently, he was made State librarian and became widely known as a lecturer and humorist, writing under the name "Mozis Addums." He deserves to be remembered as having kept alive the old school of Southern humor, founded by Longstreet and Hooper. An example of this humor, which contained local dialect, phonetic spelling and an eccentric character, is "Rubenstein’s Piano-Playin". It is a short narrative of a surly, less-than-sophisticated soul, who describes how he was deeply moved by a piano concert. It was a very popular piece, both funny and touching. His works were collected in three volumes (Richmond, 1884-86).

Bagby's most popular essay was "The Old Virginia Gentleman" (1877), a paean to antebellum plantation life in Virginia.

References

*Wilson, James Southall. "Bagby, George William." "Dictionary of American Biography." Vol. 1, Charles Scribner's Sons. 1928.
* Trent, "Southern Writers" (1905)
* American National Biography, vol. 1, pp. 868-869.
*Andrews, J. Cutler. "The South Reports the Civil War." Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 1970.
*Bagby, George William, and Thomas Nelson Page. "The Old Virginia Gentleman, And Other Sketches." New York: C. Scribner's Sons, 1910. [http://books.google.com/books?id=id4BAAAAMAAJ&pg=PR22&lpg=PR22&dq=Charleston+Mercury+bagby&source=web&ots=ZNyBWpml39&sig=IdB0xL3Shiu6CGi6SHvuhxi5f1c&hl=en#PPR3,M1 googlebooks] Retrieved May 10, 2008

Bagby is less well known for his work as a journalist. As the Richmond correspondent of the Charleston Mercury during the Civil War, Bagby covered the politics of the war and made a reputation for Hermes, his pen name, as a fearless writer who would criticize Confederate General Robert E. Lee as easily as Confederate President Jefferson Davis.

Sources: The South Reports the Civil War by J. Cutler Andrews (Princeton University Press, 1970, and the Charleston Mercury, 1861 to 1865.

External links

* [http://www.oldfashionedamericanhumor.com/rubensteins-piano-playing.html Rubenstein's Piano-Playing] – read an example of the old school of Southern humor.