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Ellis Parker Butler
(1869 - 1937)
Ellis Parker Butler (December 5, 1869 – September 13, 1937) was an American author. He was the author of more than 30 books and more than 2,000 stories and essays and is most famous for his short story “Pigs Is Pigs”, in which a bureaucratic stationmaster insists on levying the livestock rate for a shipment of two pet guinea pigs, which soon start proliferating geometrically.
Ellis Parker Butler's career spanned more than forty years; and his stories, poems, and articles were published in more than 225 magazines. His work appeared alongside that of his contemporaries, including Mark Twain, Sax Rohmer, James B. Hendryx, Berton Braley, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Don Marquis, Will Rogers, and Edgar Rice Burroughs.
Despite the enormous volume of his work, Butler was, for most of his life, only a part-time author. He worked full-time as a banker and was very active in his local community. A founding member of both the Dutch Treat Club and the Author’s League of America, Butler was an always-present force in the New York City literary scene.
This website includes many of his publications that were not reprinted in books.
Bibliography
The Adventures of a Suburbanite (1911)
A move to the country allows the narrator to garden to his heart's content -- and more. Read online at Hathitrust.
Author(s):
Ellis Parker Butler
Illustrator(s):
A. B. Phelan
The Behind Legs of the ’Orse (1927)
A collection of short stories.
Author(s):
Ellis Parker Butler
Illustrator(s):
Kleber Hall
Carter’s Legacy (1928)
A short story extolling the virtues of thrift and the history of a bank. Published on the twenty-fifth anniversary of the founding of the Citizens Trust Company of Utica, New York.
Author(s):
Ellis Parker Butler
Illustrator(s):
Photographs
Rudolph Tandler
The Cheerful Smugglers (1908)
Tom and Laura decide to charge themselves a tariff on everything they buy, to build up Bobbert's college fund. Read online at archive.org.
Author(s):
Ellis Parker Butler
Illustrator(s):
May Wilson Preston
The Confessions of a Daddy (1907)
A hymn to fatherhood, and motherhood. Read online at archive.org.
Author(s):
Ellis Parker Butler
Illustrator(s):
Fanny Y. Cory
The Delineator July 1922 (1922)
Robert Lawson illustrated Martin Forgot by Ellis Parker Butler on pages 18-19. Read online at Hathitrust.
Author(s):
Ellis Parker Butler
Various
Illustrator(s):
Robert Lawson
Et al
The Delineator July 1922 page 19 (1922)
Robert Lawson illustrated Martin Forgot by Ellis Parker Butler on pages 18-19. Read online at Hathitrust.
Author(s):
Ellis Parker Butler
Various
Illustrator(s):
Robert Lawson
Et al
Dollarature or The Drug-Store Book (1930)
A meditation of the merchandising of books in drugstores.
Author(s):
Ellis Parker Butler
Illustrator(s):
Unknown
Dominie Dean (1917)
A humorous novel set in Muscatine. Read online at Hathitrust.
Author(s):
Ellis Parker Butler
Illustrator(s):
Victor Pérard
Dorna or The Hillvale Affair (1929)
A summertime story and a mystery.
Author(s):
Ellis Parker Butler
Illustrator(s):
Unknown
An Experiment in Gyro-Hats (1910)
In which a new and original top hat helps the course of true love to run smooth. Read online at archive.org.
Author(s):
Ellis Parker Butler
Illustrator(s):
Albert Levering
The French Decorative Styles (1904)
A handbook for ready reference by the editors of The Upholstery Dealer and Decorative Furnisher, one of Ellis Parker Butler's entrepreneurial enterprises. Read online at archive.org.
Author(s):
Ellis Parker Butler
Brittain B. Wilson
Illustrator(s):
Photographs
Various
Ghosts What Ain’t (1923)
A humorous sermon on not letting our fears prevent us from acting. Read online at Hathitrust.
Author(s):
Ellis Parker Butler
Illustrator(s):
Harold Cue
Goat-Feathers (1919)
Our popular author urges us to give up collecting goat -feathers, distractions from our real calling. Read online at archive.org.
Author(s):
Ellis Parker Butler
Illustrator(s):
no first name Dennis
The Great American Pie Company (1907)
Mr. Deacon and Mr. Doolittle are the delivery men for their wives’ pie bakeries. In the great American tradition they get together over a pie and carve up the market between them. Read online at archive.org.
Author(s):
Ellis Parker Butler
Illustrator(s):
Frederic Dorr Steele
How it Feels to Be Fifty (1920)
"The great expectations are not all on the younger side of fifty. But the great satisfactions are nearly all on the onward side of it." Read online at archive.org.
Author(s):
Ellis Parker Butler
Illustrator(s):
None
Hunting the Wow (1934)
A collection of humorous stories and essays.
Author(s):
Ellis Parker Butler
Illustrator(s):
Thomas J. Fogarty
I Wish I Had Not Been a Well-Frog (1920)
An article reprinted from the American magazine on the dangers of slipping back when you try to get ahead. Read online at Hathitrust.
Author(s):
Ellis Parker Butler
Illustrator(s):
Unknown
In Pawn (1921)
Another tale of Muscatine, this time about a lazy junk man and his young boy. Read online at archive.org.
Author(s):
Ellis Parker Butler
Illustrator(s):
R. L. Lambdin
The Incubator Baby (1906)
Baby Marjorie triumphs over the committee and her scientific upbringing. Read online at archive.org.
Author(s):
Ellis Parker Butler
Illustrator(s):
May Wilson Preston