Product Description

It is Johnsons gift that he can make his subjects human and fallible enough that we wouldrecognize them instantly, while also illuminating what made them heroes. on Johnson is a clear, intelligent, forceful writer, and nothing if not thorough. Paul Johnson, the acclaimed author of , , and the bestseller , returns with a captivating collection of biographical portraits of the Western worlds greatest wits and humorists. With chapters dedicated to historys sharpest tongues and most piercing pens, including Benjamin Franklin, Toulouse-Lautrec, G.K. Chesterton, Damon Runyan, W.C. Fields, the Marx Brothers, and many more, Johnsons is an exciting compendium of our most enduring comical and satirical innovators.