George Ade

Born in Indiana in 1866, he became one of the best-known American humor writers of his day. After graduating from Purdue University, he worked as a journalist in Chicago, where his newspaper sketches and later his "fables in slang" won a wide audience.

He went on to write plays and musical comedies, including works that were major hits in the early 20th century. Much of his writing drew on Midwestern life and on the way people talked, making his humor feel lively, local, and easy to recognize even now.

Later in life he remained closely connected to Indiana, especially his home at Hazelden in Brook. He died in 1944, leaving behind a body of work that links newspaper humor, popular theater, and American regional writing.