Oliver Herford

Oliver Herford (1860-1935) was an Anglo-American writer, artist and illustrator, regarded as the American Oscar Wilde, known for his pithy bon mots and skewed sense of humour.

He was born in Sheffield, England in 1860 to Rev. Brooke Herford and Hannah Hankinson  Herford. Oliver's father, a Unitarian minister, moved the family to Chicago in 1876 and Boston in 1882. Oliver attended Antioch College in Ohio from 1877 to 1879. Later he studied art at the Slade School in London and the Académie Julien in Paris. Afterward, he moved to New York, where he lived until his death.

Herford's cartoons and humorous verses regularly enlivened publications including Life, Woman's Home Companion, Ladies' Home Journal, Century Magazine, Harper's Weekly, The Masses, The Mentor and Punch. From the 1890s to the 1930s, Herford authored over 30 books, sometimes written in collaboration with others (notably John Cecil Clay), and usually illustrated by himself. He also illustrated many books by other authors, including Joel Chandler Harris, Carolyn Wells, and Edgar Lee Masters.

Herford was a longtime member of the Players Club in New York City, where his wit became 'one of the traditions of Gramercy Park'. He married Margaret Regan, an English woman, in New York in 1905. They made their home at 182 East 18th Street for about thirty years.

Herford died on July 5, 1935, and his wife died the following December.