A humorist and satirist, known by the pseudonym of "Artemus Ward," born in Maine, U.S.; his first literary effort was as "showman" to an imaginary travelling menagerie; travelled over America lecturing, carrying with him a whimsical panorama as affording texts for his numerous jokes, which he brought with him to London, and exhibited with the same accompaniment with unbounded success; he spent some time among the Mormons, and defined their religion as singular, but their wives plural (1834-1867).