(Frank) Mc)Kin(ney) Hubbard | Biography

NOTE: Each year between 1906 and 1930, Kin Hubbard arranged to have a volume of Abe Martin's sayings published. When a trade publisher could not be secured, Hubbard published these volumes himself under the Abe Martin Publishing Company imprint. With the exception of his first book, only those volumes published under a trade imprint are listed here.

Frank McKinney Hubbard belongs to the tradition of cracker-barrel humor practiced by Josh Billings, Finley Peter Dunne, and Will Rogers, writers with whom several critics have compared his work. He won not only the praise of his friend James Whitcomb Riley, but also that of Columbia professor Brander Matthews, who admired the "homely directness" of his sayings. The English writer E. V. Lucas compiled a selection of Hubbard's sayings in 1930, calling him "The funniest man now writing." Hubbard's most important creation was Abe Martin, a homespun philosopher depicted in caricature sketches, who...
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