Sam Slick is a character created in 1835 by Thomas Chandler Haliburton, a Nova Scotian judge and author. With his wry wit and Yankee voice, Sam Slick of Slicksville put forward his views on "

human nature Human nature comprises the fundamental dispositions and characteristics—including ways of Thought, thinking, feeling, and agency (philosophy), acting—that humans are said to have nature (philosophy), naturally. The term is often used to denote ...

" in a regular column in the '' Novascotian''. The twenty-one sketches were published in a collection entitled ''The Clockmaker or, also known as, the Sayings and Doings of Samuel Slick of Slicksville First Series'' in 1836 and supplemented by an additional 12 unpublished or new sketches. The book was

Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its Provinces and territories of Canada, ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, making it the world's List of coun ...

's first international bestseller and was hugely popular not only in

Nova Scotia Nova Scotia is a Provinces and territories of Canada, province of Canada, located on its east coast. It is one of the three Maritime Canada, Maritime provinces and Population of Canada by province and territory, most populous province in Atlan ...

, but also in Britain and the

United States The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 U.S. state, states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 ...

. Slick’s wise-cracking commentary on the colonial life of Nova Scotia and relations with the U.S. and Britain struck a note with readers, which led to a second series in 1838 and a third in 1840. The

satirical Satire is a genre of the visual arts, visual, literature, literary, and performing arts, usually in the form of fiction and less frequently Nonfiction, non-fiction, in which vices, follies, abuses, and shortcomings are held up to ridicule, ...

sketches, mocking both Canadians and Americans, made Haliburton one of the most popular writers of comic fiction in English of that era. ''The Clockmaker,'' which was also translated into German, established Haliburton as one of the founders of

North America North America is a continent in the Northern Hemisphere, Northern and Western Hemisphere, Western hemispheres. North America is bordered to the north by the Arctic Ocean, to the east by the Atlantic Ocean, to the southeast by South Ameri ...

humour Humour (English in the Commonwealth of Nations, Commonwealth English) or humor (American English) is the tendency of experiences to provoke laughter and provide amusement. The term derives from the humorism, humoral medicine of the ancient Gre ...

. As Arthur Scobie notes in ''The Canadian Encyclopedia'', ''The Clockmaker'' stories, "proved immensely popular and, ironically, have influenced American humour as much as Canadian."

References

External links

The town of Windsor, Nova Scotia, home of Sam Slick
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Sam Slick Days Festival
* * * Male characters in literature Literary characters introduced in 1835 Fictional characters from Nova Scotia {{fict-char-stub