The Decline and Fall of Practically Everybody

Publisher Marketing: So you think you know most of what there is to kow about people like Nero and Cleopatra, Alexander the Great and Attila the Hun, Lady Godica and Miles Standish? You say there's nothing more to be written about Lucrezia Borgia? How wrong you are, for in these pages you'll find Will Cuppy footloose in the footnotes of history. He transforms these luminaries into human beings, not as we knew them from history books, but as we would have known them Cuppy-wise: foolish, fallible, and very much our common ancestors. When it was first published in 1950, The Decline and Fall of Practically Everybody spent four months on The New York Times best-seller list, and Edward R. Murrow devoted more than two-thirds of one of his nightly CBS programs to a reading from Cuppy's historical sketches, calling it the history book of the year. The book eventually went through eighteen hardcover printings and ten foreign editions, proof of its impeccable accuracy and deadly, imperishable humor.

Contributor Bio:  Cuppy, Will A failed dramatist who lost his beloved Jones Island hideaway to the predations of Robert Moses, Will Cuppy (1884-1949) wrote extensively on his life as a hermit, the natural world, and just about anything else that proved the world was out to get him. His cremains ended up in a leaky shoebox, proving him right. Contributor Bio:  Steig, William William Steig (1907-2003) was a cartoonist, illustrator and author of award-winning books for children, including "Shrek!", on which the DreamWorks movies are based. Steig was born in New York City. Every member of his family was involved in the arts, and so it was no surprise when he decided to become an artist. He attended City College and the National Academy of Design. In 1930, Steig's work began appearing in "The New Yorker", where his drawings have been a popular fixture ever since. He published his first children's book, "Roland the Minstrel Pig", in 1968. In 1970, Steig received the Caldecott Medal for "Sylvester and the Magic Pebble". His books for children also include "Dominic"; "The Real Thief"; "The Amazing Bone", a Caldecott Honor Book; "Amos & Boris", a National Book Award finalist; and "Abel's Island" and "Doctor De Soto", both Newbery Honor Books. Steig's books have also received the Christopher Award, the Irma Simonton Black Award, the William Allen White Children's Book Award, and the American Book Award. His European awards include the Premio di Letteratura per l'infanzia (Italy), the Silver Pencil Award (the Netherlands), and the Prix de la Fondation de France. On the basis of his entire body of work, Steig was selected as the 1982 U. S. candidate for the Hans Christian Andersen Medal for Illustration and subsequently as the 1988 U. S. candidate for Writing. Steig also published thirteen collections of drawings for adults, beginning with "About People" in 1939, and including "The Lonely Ones", "Male/Female", "The Agony in the Kindergarten", and "Our Miserable Life". He died in Boston at the age of 95. Contributor Bio:  Maeder, Thomas A graduate of Columbia University, Thomas Maeder has also written Crime and Madness, Adverse Reactions, and Antonin Artaud, a biography of the poet and drama theorist that first piqued his interest in the infamous Dr. Petiot when he came across a story of the case in an old Paris newspaper. Mr. Maeder lives near Philadelphia.