author
Bill Nye
1850–1896
Best known for turning everyday life and American history into fast, playful satire, this 19th-century humorist helped make newspaper wit a national craze. His writing mixes deadpan jokes with a reporter’s eye for the absurd.
12 Audiobooks
Comic History of the United States
by Bill Nye
Nye and Riley's Wit and Humor (Poems and Yarns)
by Bill Nye, James Whitcomb Riley
Comic History of England
by Bill Nye
A Guest at the Ludlow, and Other Stories
by Bill Nye
Remarks
by Bill Nye
Bill Nye's Cordwood
by Bill Nye
Bill Nye's Sparks
by Bill Nye
Bill Nye's Red Book New Edition
by Bill Nye
Bill Nye's Chestnuts Old and New
by Bill Nye
The humor of "Bill" Nye
by Bill Nye
About the author
Born Edgar Wilson Nye in Maine in 1850, he grew up in Wisconsin and first trained in law before finding his real audience in journalism. He became widely known under the pen name Bill Nye, especially after moving west and founding the Laramie Boomerang, a Wyoming newspaper that helped launch his career as a humorist.
His comic sketches, essays, and lecture work made him one of the best-known American humor writers of the late 19th century. He published popular books including Bill Nye and Boomerang, Baled Hay, Bill Nye's Comic History of the United States, and Bill Nye's Comic History of England, and he also collaborated with James Whitcomb Riley.
Nye died in 1896, but his work remains a lively example of American newspaper humor at its sharpest and silliest. Readers who enjoy dry wit, mock seriousness, and a distinctly Gilded Age sense of mischief will find a lot to like in his writing.