Howard L. Chace

Howard L. Chace was an American writer remembered above all for Anguish Languish, published in 1956. The book plays with the sounds of English by recasting well-known stories and nursery rhymes into phrases that seem nonsensical on the page but snap into meaning when read aloud.

Its best-known selection, “Ladle Rat Rotten Hut,” is a comic retelling of “Little Red Riding Hood” and remains the work most closely linked to his name. The enduring appeal of Chace’s writing comes from that mix of silliness and sharp linguistic imagination: it is playful, but it also shows just how much spoken rhythm and pronunciation shape understanding.

Public-domain editions identify him as Howard L. Chace, 1897–1982. While detailed biographical information is hard to confirm, his reputation as the creator of Anguish Languish has kept his work in circulation for generations of readers who enjoy language games, parody, and literary nonsense.