Thomas Wentworth Higginson, Henry Walcott Boynton, Reader's History of American Literature

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[243] of American humor was created, so to speak, by the amazed curiosity of Englishmen. It was a phrase then rarely heard in the United States; and if we had such a thing among us, although it might cling to our garments, we were habitually as unconscious of it as are smokers of the perfume of their favorite weed. We have accepted the phrase now, and have consented to take a modest sort of pride in possessing “the American humorist.” This means that we are now content to let the reputation of our humor stand or fall by the quality of the American joke.

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Artemus War.

So far as pure humor is concerned, there has never been a distinct boundary line between England and America. Nor can we say that what is called American humor belongs distinctively to the West. The early “humorists” were mostly of Eastern origin, though bred and emancipated in the Westthus Artemus Ward was from Maine, Josh Billings from Massachusetts, and Orpheus C. Kerr and Eli Perkins from New York. The prince among these jokers was Artemus Ward, who as a lecturer glided noiselessly upon the stage as if dressed for Hamlet, and looked as surprised as Hamlet