Charles Farrar Brown (he later spelled it “Browne”) was born in Waterford, Maine. He became a journeyman typesetter and journalist, writing for the Boston Carpet-Bag and later for the Cleveland Plain Dealer which, beginning in 1858, published his popular humorous letters written as “Artemus Ward,” a Yankee showman loosely based on P. T. Barnum. Browne—as Artemus Ward—soon achieved success on the lecture platform. In 1862 he had even greater success with the publication of his first book, Artemus Ward: His Book. In December 1863, he met and befriended SLC during a roisterous stay in Virginia City, Nevada. He encouraged SLC to try his fortunes in the East, inviting him in November 1864 to contribute a story to a compilation he was preparing for publication. SLC’s “Jim Smiley and His Jumping Frog” arrived too late for inclusion in the book, but was an instant hit when it was published in a New York paper in 1865. In 1866 Ward lectured in England to great acclaim; he died there of tuberculosis in March 1867. SLC wrote about his friend in “A Reminiscence of Artemus Ward (1867) and in “Artemus Ward, Humorist,” a lecture with which he toured between October and December 1871.