George Ade is considered by those who know his work best to be the most significant American humorist between Twain and Thurber. In the words of S. J. Perelman--whose urbane, baroque zaniness may well stand on the opposite literary corner from Ade's laconic sobriety and native acuteness--Ade is not merely "one of the great humorists," but perhaps "the most outstanding humorist America has yet to come up with." Ade's huge popularity and critical respect during the period of his most significant literary activity--roughly 1890-1920--however, has not been sustained; the result, as Perelman once lamented, is that his name has often become merely "a three-letter word meaning 'Indiana Humorist' in the New York Times Sunday Crossword Puzzle." Ade is not unique among American humorists in drawing his strength from the idiosyncrasies and incongruities of colloquial American English. But he is among the first to have realized that the...