George Ade: Hoosier, Author, Playwright and Humorist
Chicago
A rose by any other name would smell as sweet, but would not cost half as much during the winter months.
George Ade, "The Fable of the Old Fox and the Young Fox," 1902
Ade and McCutcheon shared a small furnished hallway bedroom in a rooming house which earned them the nickname the "hall-bedroom twins."
Ade's big break as a reporter came in July of 1890 when the freight steamer Tioga exploded on the Chicago River. Ade was the only reporter in the newsroom at the time and was sent to cover the disaster. His story was well received by the public and he was soon covering large events such as the Sullivan-Corbett fight in 1892 and the World's Columbian Exposition in 1893. Ade's colorful reporting style earned him a permanent column in the paper and he began to write a series about life in the city, Stories of the Streets and of the Towns. The public found Ade's use of everyday language and street slang innovative and refreshing, and the series became an instant success. Ade fleshed out two of the stories, Artie and Pink Marsh, and published them as books, popularizing the series across the country. Ade began experimenting with stories written in fable form using modern day slang. The public loved the fables and by the late 1890s Ade was well known throughout America and had acquired many notable fans, including literary critic William Dean Howells and humorist Mark Twain. In 1899, Ade quit the Chicago Record and began syndicating his Fables in Slang column in newspapers across the country; the columns were also compiled and published as a book later that year. Broadway took notice of the author and producers begged Ade to write a comic script for the stage.
Navigation
