Ellis Parker Butler LCCN2014719574 (cropped)

Ellis Parker Butler (December 5, 1869 – September 13, 1937) was an American author. He was the author of more than 30 books and more than 2,000 stories and essays and is most famous for his

short story A short story is a piece of prose fiction that typically can be read in one sitting and focuses on a self-contained incident or series of linked incidents, with the intent of evoking a single effect or mood. The short story is one of the oldest ...

" Pigs Is Pigs", in which a bureaucratic stationmaster insists on levying the livestock rate for a shipment of two pet guinea pigs, which soon start proliferating exponentially. His most famous character was Philo Gubb. His career spanned more than forty years, and his stories, poems, and articles were published in more than 225 magazines. His work appeared alongside that of his contemporaries, including

Mark Twain Samuel Langhorne Clemens (November 30, 1835 – April 21, 1910), known by his pen name Mark Twain, was an American writer, humorist, entrepreneur, publisher, and lecturer. He was praised as the "greatest humorist the United States has pr ...

, Sax Rohmer, James B. Hendryx,

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, F. Scott Fitzgerald,

Don Marquis Donald Robert Perry Marquis ( ; July 29, 1878 – December 29, 1937) was an American humorist, journalist, and author. He was variously a novelist, poet, newspaper columnist, and playwright. He is remembered best for creating the characters Arc ...

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, and

Edgar Rice Burroughs Edgar Rice Burroughs (September 1, 1875 – March 19, 1950) was an American author, best known for his prolific output in the adventure, science fiction, and fantasy genres. Best-known for creating the characters Tarzan and John Carter, ...

. Despite the enormous volume of his work, Butler was, for most of his life, only a part-time author. He worked full-time as a banker and was very active in his local community. A founding member of both the Dutch Treat Club and the

Authors League of America The Authors Guild is America's oldest and largest professional organization for writers and provides advocacy on issues of free expression and copyright protection. Since its founding in 1912 as the Authors League of America, it has counted among ...

, Butler was an always-present force in the New York City literary scene.

Biography

Butler was born in

Muscatine, Iowa Muscatine ( ) is a city in Muscatine County, Iowa, United States. The population was 23,797 at the time of the 2020 census, an increase from 22,697 in 2000. The county seat of Muscatine County, it is located along the Mississippi River. The lo ...

on December 5, 1869. He moved to

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

and lived in Flushing (

Queens Queens is a borough of New York City, coextensive with Queens County, in the U.S. state of New York. Located on Long Island, it is the largest New York City borough by area. It is bordered by the borough of Brooklyn at the western tip of Long ...

)

New York New York most commonly refers to: * New York City, the most populous city in the United States, located in the state of New York * New York (state), a state in the northeastern United States New York may also refer to: Film and television * '' ...

. He wrote twenty-five stories for '' Woman's Home Companion'' between 1906 and 1935. The stories in the ''Companion'' were illustrated by artists including May Wilson Preston, Frederic Dorr Steele,

Herbert Paus Herbert Andrew Paus (1860 – 1944) was an American illustrator who was inducted into the Society of Illustrators Hall of Fame in 2005. He was particularly associated with the magazine ''Popular Science ''Popular Science'' (also known as ''PopS ...

and

Rico Le Brun The Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations (RICO) Act is a United States federal law that provides for extended criminal penalties and a civil cause of action for acts performed as part of an ongoing criminal organization. RICO was en ...

. Between 1931 and 1936, at least seventeen of Butler's stories published in newspapers were illustrated by Ethel Hays. He died in Williamsville, Massachusetts on September 13, 1937, and was interred in

Flushing Cemetery Flushing Cemetery is a cemetery in Flushing in the borough of Queens in New York City, New York. History Flushing Cemetery has several predecessors. In the year 1789 (64 years before the cemetery was founded), George Washington had crossed t ...

External links

* *
ebooks of works by Ellis Parker Butler
a
Project Gutenberg Australia
* * *

Podcast, now indexed for convenience * ttp://www.adamsmithacademy.org/PigsIsPigs.html Online movie of "Pigs is Pigs"produced by the Adam Smith Academy (This link may be out of date.)
Archive
Partial archive of John Martin's online bibliography and download site. {{DEFAULTSORT:Butler, Ellis Parker 1869 births 1937 deaths 19th-century American male writers 19th-century American short story writers 20th-century American male writers 20th-century American short story writers American humorists American male short story writers Butler, Ellis People from Muscatine, Iowa Writers from Iowa