GEORGE ADE - AUTOGRAPH - HFSID 33005

GEORGE ADE. Signature: "George Ade", 4½x3½, affixed to 9x6 sheet. Signature on sheet imprinted "Hazelden Farm". Newspaper clipping affixed at lower margin of mounting sheet. In full: "Translation: Humorist-author George Ade made his early reputation with his writings in slang. Once, a Parisian admirer asked him if his books had been translated into French. 'Heck, no,' said Ade. 'They haven't even been translated into English.'" Hazelden was Ade's home (built in 1903) near Brook, Indiana. Humorist, journalist, author and playwright George Ade (1866-1944) began writing for the "Chicago Morning News" (which later became the "Chicago Record") in 1890, penning the column, "Stories of the Streets and of the Town". An admirer of Mark Twain, Ade, like his hero, focused on the "average" man and the commonplace, and he made distinctive use of the American language. His book, Fables in Slang (1899), made extensive use of the American colloquial vernacular and was typical of his genial satire. Credited as being the first modern American humorist, Ade also wrote the first American play about football. His plays include Artie, The College Widow and The Fair Co-ed, and Ade's long list of writings include The Sigma Chi Creed (1887), Forty Modern Fables (1901), In Babel: Stories of Chicago (1903), Verses and Jingles (1911), Ade's Fables (1914) and One Afternoon with Mark Twain (1939). Signature sheet is heavily soiled, touching signature. ½-inch tear at upper right margin. Mounting sheet, which is irregularly cut, has minor scuffs at lower margin.