author

John S. Robb

d. 1856

Best known for lively frontier humor, this 19th-century writer turned the American Southwest and West into comic, fast-moving sketches full of local color. His stories helped preserve a rowdy side of early regional literature that still feels vivid today.

1 Audiobook

The Swamp Doctor's Adventures in The South-West Containing the Whole of The Louisiana Swamp Doctor; Streaks of Squatter Life; and Far-Western Scenes; In a Series of Forty-Two Humorous Southern and Western Sketches, Descriptive of Incidents and Character

The Swamp Doctor's Adventures in The South-West Containing the Whole of The Louisiana Swamp Doctor; Streaks of Squatter Life; and Far-Western Scenes; In a Series of Forty-Two Humorous Southern and Western Sketches, Descriptive of Incidents and Character

by John S. Robb

About the author

Writing under the pen names Madison Tensas, M.D. and Solitaire, John S. Robb was a 19th-century American humorist and journalist associated with St. Louis. Records tied to his books identify him as "John S. Robb, of St. Louis, Mo.," and reference works describe him as a journeyman printer whose work drew on Southwestern frontier life.

Robb is best remembered for Streaks of Squatter Life, and Far-West Scenes (1847) and for The Swamp Doctor's Adventures in the South-West, collections of humorous sketches first gathered from periodicals. His writing is known for tall tales, rough-edged comedy, and colorful scenes from the frontier, making him part of the tradition of early American regional humor.

Later notices connect him with newspaper work in California, and a grave record reports that he died in Sacramento City in 1856 at about age forty-one. Even with the details of his life only partly preserved, his books remain a lively window into the language, exaggeration, and storytelling spirit of the antebellum American West.