Page:The Family Album.pdf/21

 I have been reading jokes and humorous writings and books for thirty years. I stopped laughing ten years ago, when the thirteen hundredth blonde came in with her pink ribboned envelope and told me that her family and friends went into gales of laughter over the funny things she got off, and this without giving them a thought.

Now “Bugs” Baer has stirred me from the purple melancholy of a decade.

My share in this book consists solely in reading it and making the chapter headings. The publishers told me Gilbert Seldes was to write about the author, so there is really nothing for me to say. That is why I am saying it.

I state unreservedly that “Bugs” Baer is a great humorist. I don’t think that anybody has ever properly defined a great humorist, but whatever he is, “Bugs” Baer is it. This stuff is racial, penetrative, stereopticon in its vivid characterization and true in its exaggerative qualities. Its simplicity may deceive you. Be not fooled. Human nature is here on exhibit, unadorned, as it should be.

My, what folks they are!