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Walter Blair, this book claims, was the literary scholar who, almost single-handedly, gave the study of American humour significance in the academic world. By categorising the writings of American literary humourists into such diverse styles as the Old Southwest, Local Colour and Literary Comedian humour - each having serious social import - Blair abolished the notion that they were all practicing the same kind of intellectual irreverence. Moving through more than six decades of Walter Blair's work, this book aims to provide a comprehensive introduction to the discipline he developed. The editor has selected and ordered this collection to show the scope of Blair's expertise, which encompassed the careers of characters lke Baron Munchausen as well as the achievements of such real-life humourists as E. B. White. An entire section is devoted to discourses on Mark Twain, Blair's major subject.