Edgar Wilson (Bill) Nye treated a generation of newspaper readers to two decades (1876-1896) of humor, written simply and naturally. He used words as symbols of things familiar to his readers, whether he was writing about characters of the Old West, describing the sights of the World Exposition in Paris in 1889, or telling his New York World readers about such celebrities as Boss Tweed, Horace Greeley, Frederic Remington, Robert Ingersoll, the Astors, the Goulds, or the Vanderbilts. He fitted his language to his audience, garnishing to suit an occasion or a personality. Will M. Clemens, in his book Famous Funny Fellows, recorded that during 1880-1882 Bill Nye "wrote a larger quantity and a better quality of first-class, genuine humor, than any other funny man in America."

Nye was given his pen name because readers of the Laramie City (Wyoming Territory) Sentinel in 1876 were familiar with the Bill Nye...