A Family Memoir: The Autobiography of the American Humorist Max Adeler

Charles Heber Clark (1841-1915) was a Philadelphia journalist/author (and eventually a wealthy businessman) who often wrote under the pseudonym Max Adeler. A leading figure among the Literary Comedians of the 1870s, his international reputation as a humorist was established by the sucess of his first book, Out of the Hurly-Burly in 1874. Clark’s autobiography A Familiy Memoir - published here for the first time - supplies much needed missing information about his life and career, and is a unique source for those interested in the social, political, and economic history of his era. In addition to providing an introduction and bibliography of Clark’s works (and a secondary bibliography), David Ketterer argues in an appendix that Clark/Adeler’s Professor Baffin’s Adventures of 1880 (reproduced in facsimile) inspired Twain’s A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court.