Mister Ron's Basement II
Exploring the Universe of Public Domain Humor, featuring the greatest writers in the world, seven days a week! Indexed at http://ronevry.com/Mister_Rons_Full_Catalog.html

Tue Nov 9, 2010

Mister Ron’s Basement # 1802

At Mark Twain’s request, the first volume of his lengthy Autobiography has just recently been published, one hundred years after his death. One of the earliest pieces in the book is an interview with Ex-President Ulysses S. Grant.

Mister Ron was quite surprised to hear General Grant discuss his classmate at West Point, ‘Squibob,’ and tell some stories about him.

‘Squibob,’ of course, was the pen name of George Horatio Derby, who wrote humorous newspaper pieces while serving as a surveyor and draftsman in the army back in the 1850s. He also used the pen name of John Phoenix.

Derby died in 1861, and his book publisher never sent royalties to his widow. So in 1865, she published a collection of some unreprinted pieces called ‘The Squibob Papers.’ This week, we will be reading from that book.

In today’s tale Derby waxes eloquently with poetry about growing vegetables. It is called ‘Phoenix on Agriculture.’

Time: approx seven and a half minutes

The Mister Ron’s Basement Catalog can be found at:

http://ronevry.com/Mister_Rons_Full_Catalog.html

The Index of Derby stories is located at:

http://ronevry.com/derby.html

*There is a nifty interview with Mister Ron in issue #59 iProng Magazine (now known as Beatweek Magazine) which can be downloaded at a new URL as a free pdf file here. 

*John Kelly of The Washington Post has written a lively piece about the Basement. You can read it here.

* Help Keep Mister Ron's Basement alive! Donate One Dollar: http://ronevry.com/Mister_Ron_Donate.html

A hint to new listeners - you can use the catalogs to find stories by specific authors, or just type their name in the keyword search field. To find some of the best stories in the Basement, simply click here!

-- By the way, if you haven't noticed, you can get the episode by either clicking on the word 'POD' on top of this section, or on the filename on the bottom where it says 'Direct Download' or by clicking on the Victrola picture, or by subscribing in iTunes.




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Direct download: Mister_Rons_Basement11-09-10.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 5:00pm EDT