Shaw, Henry Wheeler Pen name Josh Bil·lings  (bĭl'ĭngz)  American humorist noted for his essays on rural life, characterized by intentional misspellings and published annually in the Farmers' Allminax (1869-1880). |
Shaw, Henry Wheeler
American humorist whose philosophical comments in plain language were widely popular after the American Civil War through his newspaper pieces, books, and comic lectures. He employed the misspellings, fractured grammar, and hopeless logic then current among comic writers who assumed the role of cracker-barrel philosophers. His special contributions were his rustic aphorisms ("The biggest phool in this world haint bin born yet; thare iz plenty ov time yet") and his droll delineations of animal life
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