George Ade

Born 9 Feb 1866 · Kentland, Indiana, USA

American writer, newspaper columnist, and playwright George Ade was first and foremost a self described Hoosier. Ade was born in Kentland, Indiana, one of seven children raised by John and Adaline Ade. While attending Purdue University, he met and started a lifelong friendship with cartoonist and Sigma Chi brother John T. McCutcheon and worked as a reporter for the Lafayette Call. In 1890, Ade was hired on by the Chicago Morning News (later known as the Chicago Record), where McCutcheon was working. He wrote the column, Stories of the Streets and of the Town. In the column, which McCutcheon illustrated, Ade illustrated Chicago-life. It featured characters like Artie, an office boy, Doc Horne, a gentlemanly liar, and Pink Marsh, a black shoeshine boy. Ade's well-known "Fables in Slang" was introduced in the popular column.

Ade's literary reputation rests upon his achievements as a great humorist of American character during an important era in American history. The 1890's marked the first large migration from the countryside to burgeoning cities like Chicago, where, in fact, Ade produced his best fiction. He was a practicing realist during the Age of (William Dean) Howells and a local colorist of Chicago and the Midwest. His work constitutes a vast comedy of Midwestern manners and, indeed, a comedy of late 19th century American manners.

Ade's fiction dealt consistently with th…