Edgar Wilson Nye (August 25, 1850 – February 22, 1896) was born in Shirley, Maine, but raised a Midwesterner, in Hudson, Wisconsin. As a young man, he tried his hand at a number of careers, including farming, teaching, and law, before settling on the newspaper business. Nye received little formal schooling, and, despite having written for small local newspapers, he was initially unable to secure a position at a bigger paper in Minneapolis or St. Paul. Frustrated, he left Hudson at the age of twenty-six and headed west.

Nye finally settled in Laramie City, in the territory of Wyoming. There he found not only professional success, but a wife. As editor and a humor writer at the Laramie Boomerang, a paper he co-founded and named for his pet mule, he garnered national renown for his popular comic sketches and satiric essays, written under the penname Bill Nye. Also in Laramie City, he began to publish books of humorous essays and deliver comic lectures. In 1877 Nye married Clara Frances “Fanny” Smith of Illinois, with whom he eventually had seven children. However, a bout of spinal meningitis and financial troubles at the Boomerang forced Nye and his family to leave Laramie City in 1883.

The family briefly returned to Hudson, Wisconsin, where Nye continued to lecture and write prolifically, primarily on topics relating to the American West: mining, Native Americans, Mormons, Chinese labor, etc. Much of his writing demonstrates strong prejudices; he is critical of Native Americans and East coast elite. In 1887, the family moved again, this time to New York, because Nye had been employed as a humorous Sunday Columnist at the New York World newspaper. This was the peak of Nye’s career; his reputation as a humorist rivaled that of Mark Twain. The World column won him a large audience and eventually national syndication. In addition, his lecturing career flourished as he and poet James Whitcomb Riley toured the country as the “Twins of Genius.” However, in 1891, Nye’s health forced him to leave New York for a more temperate climate; he chose to live out the rest of his life at a rural retreat near Asheville, North Carolina.

Nye’s years in North Carolina were his most productive. He continued to write his Sunday columns, lecture, and publish prolifically. During this time Nye wrote two Broadway plays and two extremely popular volumes of burlesque history, illustrated by the ubiquitous Frederick Opper. Like his earlier writings, these works reflect the influence of the West, in subject matter and in attitude. Nye died, at home in North Carolina, of a stroke in 1896. However, his final book, “A Guest at the Ludlow” (1897), was published posthumously and became his most popular work.

One of the most revered humorists of his time, Nye commented on everything from the towns and cities he visited, as a lecturer and a columnist, to national political events. He used humor both to entertain and as a way of confronting the darker side of the American experience. And, while Nye’s popularity declined as tastes changed, much of his work is still funny, in part because he avoided the stock comic devices of his contemporaries, like vernacular writing, instead expressing his caustic humor through word play and irony.

Selected Works by Bill Nye

• “A Miners’ Meeting – My Mine – A Mirage on the Plains,” from Bill Nye and Boomerang; or, The Tale of a Meek-Eyed Mule, and Some Other Literary Gems (Chicago: Belford, Clarke, & Co., 1881).
• “Letter from Paris,” from Bill Nye and Boomerang; or, The Tale of a Meek-Eyed Mule, and Some Other Literary Gems (Chicago: Belford, Clarke, & Co., 1881).
• “Some Reasons Why I Can’t Be an Indian Agent,” from Bill Nye and Boomerang; or, The Tale of a Meek-Eyed Mule, and Some Other Literary Gems (Chicago: Belford, Clarke, & Co., 1881).
• “Billious Nye and Boomerang in the Gold Mines,” from Bill Nye and Boomerang; or, The Tale of a Meek-Eyed Mule, and Some Other Literary Gems (Chicago: Belford, Clarke, & Co., 1881).
• “William Nye and the Heathen Chinese,” from Bill Nye and Boomerang; or, The Tale of a Meek-Eyed Mule, and Some Other Literary Gems (Chicago: Belford, Clarke, & Co., 1881).
• “He Went Out West for His Health,” from Bill Nye and Boomerang; or, The Tale of a Meek-Eyed Mule, and Some Other Literary Gems (Chicago: Belford, Clarke, & Co., 1881).
• “The Veteran Who Died While Getting His Pension,” from Bill Nye and Boomerang; or, The Tale of a Meek-Eyed Mule, and Some Other Literary Gems (Chicago: Belford, Clarke, & Co., 1881).
• “What Woman’s Suffrage Has Done for Wyoming,” from Bill Nye and Boomerang; or, The Tale of a Meek-Eyed Mule, and Some Other Literary Gems (Chicago: Belford, Clarke, & Co., 1881).
• “Thoughts on Marriage,” from Bill Nye and Boomerang; or, The Tale of a Meek-Eyed Mule, and Some Other Literary Gems (Chicago: Belford, Clarke, & Co., 1881).
• “The Peace Commission,” from Bill Nye and Boomerang; or, The Tale of a Meek-Eyed Mule, and Some Other Literary Gems (Chicago: Belford, Clarke, & Co., 1881).