author
W. H. (Walter Henry) Howe
b. 1848
Known today for lively Victorian-era anthologies, this compiler gathered jokes, quotations, epitaphs, and game rules into handy volumes meant for browsing and entertainment. His books preserve the taste for wit and miscellany that made late 19th-century gift and reference books so popular.
1 Audiobook
Scotch Wit and Humor
by W. H. (Walter Henry) Howe
About the author
Walter Henry Howe, usually listed as W. H. Howe, was a 19th-century compiler and editor rather than a novelist in the usual sense. Library and digitized book records identify him as born in 1848, and they connect his name with books such as English Wit and Humor, Irish Wit and Humor, Scotch Wit and Humor, Everybody's Book of Epitaphs, and Everybody's Book of Indoor Games.
His surviving works suggest a clear specialty: collecting entertaining material and organizing it for easy reading. Instead of building one long narrative, he assembled humorous sayings, anecdotes, literary extracts, and practical pastimes into themed volumes that readers could dip into at leisure.
Very little biographical detail beyond his name and birth year was easy to confirm from reliable catalog and digitized-book sources. Even so, his books offer a useful snapshot of the humor, social amusements, and popular reading habits of the late Victorian period.