Shaw, Henry Wheeler

Shaw, Henry Wheeler (Josh Billings, pen name)

(1818–85) writer; born in Lanesboro, Mass. He studied at Hamilton College (1832–33), but was dismissed for removing the clapper from the chapel bell. He then traveled widely, held a variety of jobs, and settled in Poughkeepsie, N.Y. There he became a realtor and auctioneer. Using his pen name, he wrote humorous aphorisms (with crude misspellings), as in Josh Billings, His Sayings (1865), and a parody annual, Farmer's Allminax (1869–80). Once he was successful, he moved to New York City.

The Cambridge Dictionary of American Biography, by John S. Bowman. Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1995. Reproduced with permission.