At four in the afternoon on this day, Abraham Lincoln's favorite author, Charles Farrar Browne, who wrote and performed under the name "Artemus Ward," died of tuberculosis at Southampton in England where he had been touring for several months. Only thirty-two years old at his death, he is considered to be the country's first "stand-up comedian," and was world famous for his stories and his humorous speeches on stage. A close friend of Mark Twain and a prominent member of New York City's "Bohemian set," he was buried in London. His remains have since been returned to his hometown of Waterford, Maine. (By John Osborne)
Don Carlos Seitz, Artemus Ward (Charles Farrar Browne): A Biography and Bibliography (New York: Harper and Brothers, 1919), 213.
