Marquis, Don

Marquis, Don (Donald Robert Perry Marquis) (mär`kwĭs), 1878–1937, American author, b. Walnut, Ill. In 1912 he began the humorous column "The Sun Dial" in the New York Sun and later conducted "The Lantern" in the Herald Tribune. He invented various characters of gay satire, notably "archy the cockroach" and "mehitabel the cat." Their saga is told in Lives and times of archy and mehitabel (3 vol. in 1, 1943). Marquis published innumerable stories, poems, and plays.

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Marquis, Don (b. Donald Robert Perry Marquis) (1878–1937) author, humorist; born in Walnut, Ill. A columnist from 1913 to 1925 for the New York Sun and then the New York Herald Tribune, he created such characters as "archy" (the literary cockroach) and "mehitabel" (the cat) to satirize fads and pretensions. His humor also helped him surmount personal misfortunes such as the early deaths of his first wife and his two children.