George Ade

George Ade ( born February 9, 1866 in Kentland, Indiana, † May 16 1944 in Brook, Indiana) was an American writer who is best known for the humorous Fables in Slang.

Life

Ade was one of seven children of a farmer couple. Already the young George was more interested in books than on the order of a farm. Consequently, he studied at Purdue University, after graduating in 1887, he worked as a reporter for the newspaper Lafayette call. In 1890 he was on the editorial board of the Chicago Morning News, which became the Chicago Record later. Here Ade wrote the column Stories of the Streets and of the Town, in which he humorously depicted everyday life in Chicago. Recurring characters of these stories were Artie, the office boy, Doc Horne, a liar with good manners, and Pink Marsh, a black shoeshine.

Also Ades most famous stories Fables in Slang, originally appeared in this column, then in 1899 for the first time in book form. The growing popularity of Ades contributions explained mainly by the fact that the writer in them with sympathy the lives of the " little man" represented, of the average American. Ades fables that have been nationally marketed and released by Essanay as a film series ( ten times led Ade himself directed ), earned him the nickname Aesop Indiana.

Ade wrote with varying success plays and musicals for Broadway. After twelve years in Chicago, the through his books and land ownership has become very wealthy Ade built a stately house in the Tudor style, Hazelden farm on which he organized folk festivals. There, the politically active author had also William Howard Taft and Theodore Roosevelt guest and taught a 1919 celebration in honor returning soldiers from.

About the artwork

Ades model was Mark Twain; as he wanted to tell his stories in a typical American language. In the Fables in Slang he tried this through the strategic use of slang. Ades stories are friendly satires on certain types of American society, such as the riser. The stories end almost all with an ironic formulated morality (eg, diligence and perseverance to bring a safe reward) and emphasize the difference between the traditional virtues of country life, with whom Ade grew up, and the pursuit of fast material success of urban residents.

Works

• Artie. A Story of the Streets and Town (1896 )
• Pink Marsh. A Story of the Streets and Town (1897 )
• Doc Horne (1899 )
• Fables in Slang (1899 )
• More Fables (1900)
• American Vacations in Europe ( 1901)
• Forty Modern Fables (1901 )
• In Babel. Stories of Chicago ( 1903)
• Breaking into Society ( 1904)
• Old Town ( 1909)
• I Remember Him When. A Hoosier Fable Dealing with the Happy Days of Away Back Yonder (1910 )
• Hoosier Handbook and True Guide for the Returning Exile (1911 )
• Verses and Jingles (1911 )
• Ade's Fables (1914 )
• Hand-made Fables (1920 )
• On the Indiana Trail ( 1930)
• Thirty Fables in Slang (1933 )
• One Afternoon with Mark Twain ( 1939)
• Notes and Reminiscences (1940 )