[Back] [Blueprint] [Next]


Online Introduction
to

SLAMS OF LIFE
By J. P. McEVOY





One of the poems, The Flu from this book has been online for about five years. Finally, the rest is now online too.

Joseph Patrick McEvoy started his career writing greeting cards before World War I. He then went on to writing funny poems for newspapers and magazines, including a column for the The Chicago Tribune, which is the paper from the town were he lived at the time. Slams of Life was his first book, according to a collection of funny and biographical quotes in an article called Just Greetings, online at Old and Sold. He later became quite famous, writing novels which were adapted for the movies and the comic-strip Dixie Dugan. See his Wikipedia entry for more details.

This is your chance to catch up on American slang from the early 1900’s, some positively hilarious newly-invented words, and the concerns of the “common man” of those days. Almost all of the issues still exist, so the poems are just as meaningful nowadays. I have added a few short notes on some of the subjects who he mentions to make them clearer.

J. P. is a very funny guy and his humor is not vicious (despite the full title of the book), which makes this the best sort of humor. His introduction is equally witty.

Interestingly, there is an eminent psychiatrist named J[oseph]. P. McVoy. I wonder if he is any relation?

Get started:

SLAMS OF LIFE
With Malice for All And Charity
Towards None









[Back] [Blueprint] [Next]