American essayist and novelist Charles Dudley Warner (1829–1900) was raised on a farm, attended college, studied law and practiced law briefly. He was an activist for prison reform and other social improvements. An editor for Harper’s Magazine, he became the first president of the National Institute of Arts and Letters. Known for his humor, Warner is noted for the line, “Everybody complains about the weather, but nobody does anything about it.” In 1873 he collaborated with Mark Twain to publish The Gilded Age: A Tale of Today. He traveled extensively and wrote several books describing his adventures. The following […]
