The Project Gutenberg eBook of The Wit of Women, by Kate Sanborn
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Title: The Wit of Women
Fourth Edition
Author: Kate Sanborn
Release Date: April 5, 2009 [eBook #28503]
Language: English
Character set encoding: ISO-646-US (US-ASCII)
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THE WIT OF WOMEN
by
KATE SANBORN
“The Wit of Women,” by Miss Kate Sanborn, [Funk &
Wagnalls,] proves that the authoress is one of those
rare women who are gifted with a sense of humor.
Fortunately for her, the female sense of humor, when it
does exist, is not affected by such trifles as
“chestnuts.” Therefore, women will read with pleasure
Miss Sanborn’s choice collection of these dainties.
There are, however, many new anecdotes in Miss
Sanborn’s collection, and, taken as a whole, it may
fairly be said to establish the fact that there have
been feminine wits not inferior to the best of the
opposite sex.
[Newspaper clipping pasted into front cover]
THE WIT OF WOMEN
by
KATE SANBORN
Fourth Edition
New York Funk & Wagnalls Company London and Toronto
1895
Entered, according to Act of Congress, in the year 1885, by Funk & Wagnalls, In the Office of the Librarian of Congress at Washington, D.C.
Miss Addie Boyd, of the Cincinnati “Commercial,” and
Miss Anna M.T. Rossiter, alias Lilla M. Cushman, of the
Meriden “Recorder,” will probably represent the gentler
sex in the convention of paragraphers which meets next
month. They are a pair o’ graphic writers and equal to
the best in the profession.—Waterloo Observer.
[Newspaper clipping pasted into book]
INTRODUCTION.
It is refreshing to find an unworked field all ready for harvesting.
While the wit of men, as a subject for admiration and discussion, is now threadbare, the wit of women has been almost utterly ignored and unrecognized.
With the joy and honest pride of a discoverer, I present the results of a summer’s gleaning.
And I feel a cheerful and Colonel Sellers-y confidence in the success of the book, for every woman will want to own it, as a matter of pride and interest, and many men will buy it just to see what women think they can do in this line. In fact, I expect a call for a second volume!
KATE SANBORN.
HANOVER, N.H., August, 1885.
My thanks are due to so many publishers, magazine editors, and personal friends for material for this book, that a formal note of acknowledgment seems meagre and unsatisfactory. Proper credit, however, has been given all through the volume, and with special indebtedness to Messrs. Harper & Brothers and Charles Scribner’s Sons of New York, and Houghton, Mifflin & Co. of Boston. I add sincere gratitude to all who have so generously contributed whatever was requested.
CONTENTS.
CHAPTER I.
PAGE
THE MELANCHOLY TONE OF WOMEN’S POETRY—PUNS, GOOD
AND BAD—EPIGRAMS AND LACONICS—CYNICISM OF FRENCH
WOMEN—SENTENCES CRISP AND SPARKLING 13
CHAPTER II.
HUMOR OF LITERARY ENGLISHWOMEN 32
CHAPTER III.
FROM ANNE BRADSTREET TO MRS. STOWE 47
CHAPTER IV.
“SAMPLES” HERE AND THERE 67
CHAPTER V.
A BRACE OF WITTY WOMEN 85
CHAPTER VI.
GINGER-SNAPS 103
CHAPTER VII.
PROSE, BUT NOT PROSY 122
