George Ade (February 9, 1866 – May 16, 1944) was an American writer, syndicated newspaper columnist, librettist, and playwright who gained national notoriety at the turn of the 20th century with his "Stories of the Streets and of the Town", a column that used street language and slang to describe daily life in Chicago, and a column of his fables in slang, which were humorous stories that featured vernacular speech and the liberal use of capitalization in his characters' dialog.

Ade's fables in slang gained him wealth and fame as an American humorist, as well as earning him the nickname of the "Aesop of Indiana". His notable early books include Artie (1896); Pink Marsh (1897); Fables in Slang (1900), the first in a series of books; and In Babel (1903), a collection of his short stories. His first stage work produced for the Broadway stage was the operetta The Sultan of Sulu, for which he wrote the libretto in 1901. The Sho-Gun and his best-known plays, The County Chairman and The College Widow, were simultaneously appearing on Broadway in 1904. Ade also wrote scripts and had some of his fables and plays adapted into motion pictures.

During the first quarter of the 20th century, Ade, along with Booth Tarkington, Meredith Nicholson, and James Whitcomb Riley helped to create a Golden Age of literature in Indiana.

The Purdue University graduate from rural Newton County, Indiana, began his career in journalism as a newspaper reporter in Lafayette, Indiana, before moving to Chicago, Illinois, to work for the Chicago Daily News. In addition to writing, Ade enjoyed traveling, golf, and entertaining at Hazelden, his estate home near Brook, Indiana. Ade was also a member of Purdue University's board of trustees from 1909 to 1916, a longtime member of the Purdue Alumni Association, a supporter of Sigma Chi (his college fraternity), and a former president of the Mark Twain Association of America. In addition, he donated funds for construction of Purdue's Memorial Gymnasium, its Memorial Union Building, and with David Edward Ross, contributed land and funding for construction of Purdue's Ross–Ade Stadium, named in their honor in 1924.

Early life and education

George Ade was born in Kentland, Indiana, on February 9, 1866, to farmer and bank cashier John and Adaline Wardell (Bush) Ade. George was the second youngest of the family's seven children (four boys and three girls). George's father served as the Newton County, Indiana, recorder, and was also a banker in Kentland; his mother was a homemaker. George enjoyed reading from an early age, but he disliked manual labor and was not interested in becoming a farmer. Although he graduated from Kentland High School in 1881, his mother did not think he was ready for college. As a result, Ade remained in high school for another year before enrolling at Purdue University in 1883 on scholarship.

Ade studied science at Purdue, but his grades began to falter after his first year when he became more active in the college's social life. Ade also developed an interest in the theater and became a regular at the Grand Opera House in Lafayette, Indiana. In addition, he joined the Sigma Chi fraternity. Ade also met and began a lifelong friendship with cartoonist and Sigma Chi fraternity brother John T. McCutcheon. Ade graduated with a Bachelor of Science degree from Purdue in 1887. He briefly thought about becoming a lawyer, but abandoned the idea to pursue a career in journalism.

Career

thumb|left|Ade (left), with [[John T. McCutcheon, circa 1894–1895]]

Newspaper reporter

Ade did not begin his writing career in college. In 1887, after graduating from Purdue University, he worked in Lafayette, Indiana, as a reporter and telegraph editor for the Lafayette Morning News and then the Lafayette Call. Beginning in 1893, Ade was put in charge of the daily column, "Stories of the Streets and of the Town," which frequently included McCutcheon's illustrations. Through Ade's use of street language and slang, the column described daily life in Chicago and introduced some of his early literary characters, which included Artie, an office boy; Doc Horne, a "gentlemanly liar"; and Pink Marsh, an African American shoeshine boy who worked in a barbershop. Collections of Ade's columns were subsequently published as books, such as Artie (1896), Pink Marsh (1897), and Doc' Horne (1899), which also helped to increase the popularity of his column. Ade's newspaper columns also included dialog and short plays containing his humorous observations of everyday life.

Playwright, librettist, and author

thumb|right|Frederick Truesdell and [[Dorothy Tennant (actress)|Dorothy Tennant in a scene from The College Widow]]

After Ade's newspaper columns went into syndication in 1900, he began writing plays. His first stage work produced for Broadway was the musical The Night of the Fourth which premiered on January 21, 1901, at the Victoria Theatre. Ade wrote the book to this musical with Max Hoffmann as composer and J. Sherrie Mathews as lyricist. It was a critical flop and closed after fourteen performances.

Ade's next show on Broadway was The Sultan of Sulu; an operetta with music by Alfred G. Wathall for which Ade was the librettist. The opera's plot was about the American military's efforts to assimilate natives of the Philippines into American culture. It premiered at Wallack's Theatre on December 29, 1902, in a production produced by opera impresario Henry W. Savage. A popular success, it ran for 200 performances at that theatre; closing on Jun 13, 1903. It then embarked on a national tour which included a return engagement to Broadway in November 1903, this time at the Grand Opera House. The composer Nathaniel D. Mann contributed one song to the operetta, "My Sulu Lulu Loo".

His other works for Broadway include Peggy from Paris (1903), a musical comedy; The County Chairman (1903), a piece about small-town politics; The Sho-Gun (1904), a musical set in Korea; and The College Widow (1904), a comedy about college life and American collegiate football.

Not all of Ade's theatrical productions were successes, such as The Bad Samaritan (1905), but three of his plays (The College Widow, The Sho-Gun, and The County Chairman) were simultaneously appearing on Broadway in 1904. The best known and among the most successful of Ade's Broadway plays are The County Chairman and The College Widow, which were also adapted into motion pictures. Ade's final Broadway play before he retired from playwriting was The Old Town, produced in 1910. Marse Covington is considered to be among the best of his one-act plays. Ade also wrote scripts for moving pictures, such as Our Leading Citizen (1922 silent film), Back Home and Broke (1922 silent film), and Woman-Proof (1923 silent film) for actor Thomas Meighan. Ade also wrote two films for Will Rogers, U.S. Minister Bedlow (adapted from his 1911 play of the same name) and The County Chairman, a 1935-screen version of the play, but Ade did not get along with Hollywood filmmakers.

By the mid-1920s, Ade's plays were no longer in fashion, but he continued to write essays, short stories, and articles for newspapers and magazines in addition to film scripts. Ade also wrote about his extensive travels, but he is best known for his humorous columns, essays, books, and plays. His fables in slang stories and series of books, in addition to making him wealthy, gained him notoriety as an American writer.

While his humor depicts Midwestern speech and manners, it also reflects mannerisms found in late 19th-century America as well. Like Ade himself, his characters also found humor in everyday experiences, mocked pretentious social situations, and tried not take life too seriously. An example of Ade's non-standard punctuation and writing style appears in this description of a modern single woman and what Ade believes to be her high standards for an ideal husband:

In 1915, Sir Walter Raleigh, Oxford professor and man of letters, while on a lecture tour in America, called George Ade "the greatest living American writer." H. L. Mencken considered selections that appeared in Ade's book, In Babel, as "some of the best short stories in America."

Personal life

thumb|right|250px|Ade's house near Brook, Indiana

Hazelden farm

By the early 1900s, after twelve years in Chicago, Ade's writing had brought him financial success and he retired to a leisurely life in the country. Ade invested his earnings in Newton County, Indiana, farmland, eventually owning about . In 1902, George's brother, William Ade, purchased on his behalf a site of wooded land along the Iroquois River near the town of Brook in Newton County, Indiana. George initially intended to build a summer cottage. Instead, Chicago architect Billie Mann, a Sigma Chi fraternity brother, designed for Ade a two-story, fourteen-room country manor, which was constructed at an estimated cost of US$25,000. Ade named the property Hazelden, after his English grandparents' home, and moved from Chicago into the newly built residence in 1904. In addition to the Tudor Revival-style home, the property eventually included landscaped grounds, a swimming pool, greenhouse, barn, and caretaker's cottage, among other outbuildings. Ade also added an adjacent golf course and country club in 1910.

Ade frequently entertained at his Indiana estate. In addition to serving as a summer home (and his permanent residence beginning in 1905), Hazelden was used for political gatherings and community events. Hazelden was the site where Republican William Howard Taft announced his candidacy for president of the United States and launched his campaign in 1908. It was also used as the site for a political rally for Theodore Roosevelt's Bull Moose Party in 1912 and a venue for an address from vice presidential candidate Charles W. Dawes in 1924. (Ade, a political conservative, supported Republican Party candidates.) Ade also hosted a homecoming party for soldiers and sailors on July 4, 1919, as well as parties and gatherings for the community, local children, Purdue University alumni, Sigma Chi fraternity brothers, members of the Indiana Society of Chicago, and golf tournaments.

Other interests

Ade spent the summer months at his Hazelden estate in Newton County, Indiana, and vacationed during the winter months at a rented home in Miami, Florida. He was also an avid traveler who made trips around the world, as well as multiple trips to Europe, the West Indies, China, and Japan. In addition to his frequent travels, Ade enjoyed horse racing and golf.

Death and legacy

Ade fell into a coma after suffering a heart attack and died on May 16, 1944, in Brook, Indiana at the age of 78. His remains are interred at Fairlawn Cemetery in Kentland, in Iroquois Township, Newton County, Indiana. Following Ade's death, ownership of Hazelden, his former home in Newton County, Indiana, was transferred to Purdue University, who relinquished the property to the State of Indiana when it could no longer afford its upkeep. The State of Indiana, unable to maintain the home, turned it over to Newton County, Indiana, officials. Ade's remaining land was distributed among his relatives. In 1962 the George Ade Memorial Association raised funds to acquire, renovate, and restore the home. The Association disbanded in 2018, and, as of 2019, Newton county officials are assessing the home's condition and plans for restoring it for use as a public historic site and events venue.

  • Circus Day [1896]
  • Artie (1896)
  • Fables in Slang (New York, 1900)
  • More Fables (1900)
  • American Vacations in Europe (1901)
  • Forty Modern Fables (1901)
  • The Girl Proposition (1902)
  • Peggy from Paris (1903), a musical comedy
  • The County Chairman (1903 and 1924), a play
  • In Babel (1903)
  • People You Know (1903)
  • Clarence Allen (1903, Strenuous Lad's Library, no. 2)
  • Rollo Johnson (1904, Strenuous Lad's Library, no. 3
  • Breaking into Society (1904)
  • Just Out of College (1905 and 1924), a play
  • Round about Cairo, with and without the Assistance of the Dragoman or Simon Legree of the Orient (1906), from In Pastures New
  • The Slim Princess (1907)
  • The Old Town (1910), a musical
  • Hoosier Hand Book and True Guide for the Returning Exile (1911)
  • Verses and Jingles (1911)
  • On the Indiana Trail (1911)
  • The Revised Legend for One Who Came Back (1912)
  • The Fable of the Busy Business Boy and the Droppers-In (1914)
  • The Fable of the Roistering Blades (1915)
  • Invitation to You and Your Folks from Jim and Some More of the Home Folks (1916)
  • Hand-made Fables (1920)
  • Single Blessedness and Other Observations (1922)
  • Mayor and the Manicure (1923), a one-act play
  • Nettie (1923), a one-act play
  • Speaking to Father (1923), a one-act play
  • Bang! Bang! (1928)
  • Old-time Saloon: Not Wet—Not Dry, Just History (1931)
  • One Afternoon with Mark Twain (1939)
  • Notes & Reminiscences (with John T. McCutcheon) (1940)

Collected works

  • The America of George Ade, 1866–1944; Fables, Short Stories, Essays (1960, edited and introduced by Jean Shepherd)
  • Stories of the Streets and of the Towns (1941, edited by Franklin J. Meine)

Film adaptations

  • The County Chairman (1914)
  • The Fable of the Busy Business Boy and the Droppers-In (short, 1914)
  • The Slim Princess (1915)
  • Father and the Boys (1915)
  • The College Widow (1915)
  • Marse Covington (1915)
  • The Fable of the Roistering Blades (short, 1915)
  • Just Out of College (1920)
  • The Slim Princess (1920)
  • The Fair Co-Ed (1927)
  • The College Widow (1927)
  • The County Chairman (1935)
  • Freshman Love (1936), an adaption of The College Widow
  • Part of Till the Clouds Roll By (1946), which includes two songs adapted from The College Widow

Other

  • "Authors!—Burn Up Your Alibis!," Photoplay, September 1923, p. 46.
  • The Sigma Chi Creed (1929)

As a character in fiction

  • P. G. Wodehouse refers to Ade's "The Fable of the Author Who Was Sorry for What He Did to Willie" in Love Among the Chickens (1909).
  • Ade journeys to Mars with Nikola Tesla and Mark Twain in Sesh Heri's novel Wonder of the Worlds (2005).

References

Sources

  • "Biographical Sketch" in
  • "Biographical Sketch" in
  • Note: This includes

Further reading

  • Over 150 George Ade stories read in Mister Ron's Basement Podcast, now indexed to make them easy to find
  • George Ade Digital Exhibit at Purdue University Libraries The Libraries Archives and Special Collections holds many of Ade's original works.
  • George Ade Papers 1865–1971 at The Newberry Library