Guy Wetmore Carryl

Guy Wetmore Carryl was an American comic and poet. Carryl was born in New York City, the first child of author Charles Edward Carryl and Mary R. Wetmore. He had his first essay published in The New York Times when he was twenty years old. Carryl graduated from Columbia University in 1895, when she was 22 years old. During his college years, he wrote plays for amateur productions, including the inaugural Varsity Show. One of his lecturers was Harry Thurston Peck, who was scandalized by Carryl's...See more

Guy Wetmore Carryl was an American comic and poet. Carryl was born in New York City, the first child of author Charles Edward Carryl and Mary R. Wetmore. He had his first essay published in The New York Times when he was twenty years old. Carryl graduated from Columbia University in 1895, when she was 22 years old. During his college years, he wrote plays for amateur productions, including the inaugural Varsity Show. One of his lecturers was Harry Thurston Peck, who was scandalized by Carryl's famous quip, "It takes two bodies to make one seduction," which was considered risqué at the time. Following graduation, in 1896, he worked as a staff writer at Munsey's Magazine under Frank Munsey and was eventually promoted to managing editor. He later proceeded to work for Harper's Magazine and was transferred to Paris. While in Paris, he contributed to Life, Outing, Munsey's, and Collier's, as well as his own independent work. Carryl's most well-known works were comic poems that were parodies of Aesop's Fables, such as "The Sycophantic Fox and the Gullible Raven," and Mother Goose nursery rhymes, such as "The Embarrassing Episode of Little Miss Muffet," which are still famous today. See less