Recently I have read “Three Men In A Boat” by Jerome K. Jerome (1870s I think) and “Our Hearts Were Young and Gay” by Cornelia Otis Skinner and Emily Kimbrough (written in 1942 about 1925).
Both were utterly delightful and I discover that these humorous works make the people of the times seem much more contemporary than other styles.
Anybody know of works in the same vein from 1900-1920? (a time period of particular interest to me because I know relatively little about it)
Thanks Dopers!
Harpo Marx was born in 1888 and Harpo Speaks is one of the best, and funniest, autobiographies I have ever read.
Cheaper by the Dozen by Frank Kenneth Galbraith. The original memoir is great reading and was made into a pretty good play and movie (and I don’t mean the Steve Martin version, which has only a title in common).
Sterling North’s Rascal, about the pet raccoon he kept around 1917-1918. Lots of great small-town characters.
Clarence Day’s Life with Father is set mostly in the 1890s, but he also has some writings about later periods, I think especially in Life with Mother.
Whoops, forgot – I’ll second this recommendation and also make a slight correction to the author name: Frank B. (Bunker) Gilbreth and Ernestine Gilbreth Carey.