Will Cuppy, How to Tell Your Friends from the Apes

Alfred Castle (Independent Scholar - North America)

The Literary Encyclopedia. Volume 3.2.3: American (US) Writing and Culture: The Early Twentieth-century , 1900-1945.
Vol. editors: J. Michael Duvall (College of Charleston), Emory Elliott (University of California, Riverside), Dale Enggass (University of Utah), Matthew Hofer (University of New Mexico), Stephen E. Meats (Pittsburg State University), Tony Papanikolas (San Jose State University), Justin Parks (UiT - The Arctic University of Norway), Nick Selby (University of East Anglia)

Dates

First circulation or publication 1931

Places

United States (Country of Origin)

Genres and Modes

Non-Fiction
- Essay Collection

Resources

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In the United States, the 1930’s saw a recrudescence of literary naturalism as authors resumed their interest in “scientific” and “objective” depiction of characters and their material circumstances. Inspired initially by Emile Zola, American naturalists asserted that the actions and the nature of humans were determined by evolutionary and biological forces beyond rational control. The inspiring results of these forces are depicted in a dispassionate and “objective” manner. For a few, naturalistic assumptions about the human condition led to an ineluctable dark humor that provided minimal relief from life’s exigencies (Jacobs, 287-94).

One such author was the popular New York literary curmudgeon Will Cuppy. Born in Indiana in 1884, Cuppy graduated from the University of

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2928 words

Citation: Castle, Alfred. "How to Tell Your Friends from the Apes". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 24 February 2009 [https://www.litencyc.com/php/sworks.php?rec=true&UID=25840, accessed 18 April 2024.]

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