A Parody Outline of History

Stewart was a well known writer, playwright and critic, and a member of the famed Algonquin Round Table. The Round Table met for lunch and drinks (mostly drinks) in New York at the Algonquin Hotel, and was composed of a varied assortment of writers and wits, including Dorothy Parker, Robert Benchley, George Kaufman, Ernest Hemingway, and Groucho Marx, among others. Among the scads of books he wrote, most with some sort of humorous theme, this one was one of his most popular. It was a take-off on “The Outline of History” by H. G. Wells, a runaway best seller at the time. In Stewart’s version, he takes selected events in American history and provides a satiric spin on them, writing each episode in the style of some popular writer of the time, including Eugene O’Neill, Sinclair Lewis, and Scott Fitzgerald. This small book is certainly light reading, but it does manage to raise a smile or two in the process.