28 Facts About Will Cuppy

William Jacob Cuppy was an American humorist and literary critic, known for his satirical books about nature and historical figures.

Will Cuppy was named "Will" in memory of an older brother of his father's who died of wounds he received as a Union officer at the Civil War Battle of Fort Donelson.

Will Cuppy's mother, Frances Stahl Cuppy, was a seamstress and worked in a small shop located next to the family home in Auburn.

Young Will Cuppy spent summers at a farm belonging to his grandmother, Sarah Collins Will Cuppy, on the banks of the Eel River near South Whitley, Indiana.

Will Cuppy later said that this was where he acquired his early knowledge of the natural world which he satirized in his writings.

Will Cuppy graduated from Auburn High School in 1902 and went on to the University of Chicago, where he received a bachelor's degree in 1907.

Will Cuppy lingered at Chicago seven more years as a graduate student in English literature.

Will Cuppy did not show much interest in his studies, but in 1910 produced his first book, Maroon Tales, a collection of short stories about university life.

Will Cuppy supported himself in New York by writing advertising copy while he tried unsuccessfully to write a play.

Will Cuppy served briefly stateside in World War I as a second lieutenant in the US Army Motor Transport Corps.

In 1926, Will Cuppy began writing a weekly "Light Reading" column, later renamed "Mystery and Adventure", for the Tribune's successor, the New York Herald Tribune.

Will Cuppy continued writing the column until his death 23 years later, reviewing a career total of more than 4,000 titles of crime and detective fiction.

The crew at the nearby Zachs Inlet Coast Guard Station shared their food and recipes with Will Cuppy and helped him repair his shack.

Will Cuppy made regular visits to his place at the beach until the end of his life.

From his Greenwich Village apartment, Will Cuppy continued to turn out magazine articles and books.

Will Cuppy always worked from notes jotted on 3x5-inch index cards.

Will Cuppy would amass hundreds of cards even for a short article.

Will Cuppy enjoyed a brief success in 1933 with a humorous talk show on NBC radio with actress and gourmet cook Jeanne Owen, but he flopped on the lecture circuit.

Basically shy, Will Cuppy was happiest when he was rummaging through scholarly journals prizing out facts to copy out on his note cards.

Will Cuppy edited three collections of mystery stories: World's Great Mystery Stories ; World's Great Detective Stories ; and Murder Without Tears.

The Decline and Fall was completed and published in 1950 by Fred Feldkamp, who sifted through nearly 15,000 of Will Cuppy's carefully filed note cards to get the book into print within a year of his friend's death.

Will Cuppy's cremated remains were returned to his hometown and buried in a grave next to his mother's in Evergreen Cemetery.

Will Cuppy's grave was unmarked until 1985, when local donors purchased a granite headstone with the inscription, "American Humorist".

In 2003, Will Cuppy received another memorial when a committee of the International Astronomical Union approved the name "15017 Will Cuppy" for an asteroid.

Will Cuppy had the haunted look of the true humorist.

Will Cuppy's papers, including thousands of his notecards, are archived at the University of Chicago Library.

The good quality of the Persian prose and the fact of Will Cuppy's being unknown in Iran led to speculation that the book was not a translation, but an original book by Daryabandari and possibly a collaborator, who was speculated to be Ahmad Shamlou.

The issue was not publicly settled until the satire magazine Golagha ran an article about their "discovery" of Will Cuppy, which proved Daryabandari right.