The Annotated Archy and Mehitabel (Penguin Classics)

This is a very funny book about the cockroach writing on the typewriter. However I had an earlier version, which I lost, that had the letters in the book mixed around like it would have been written by a cockroach!!!!!!

This version is just straight reading.

I first read an excerpt from the "Archy and Mehitabel" series of newspaper columns (written by the exceptionally dry wit and skilled humorist Don Marquis back in the early 1900s, around the time of World War I) in an old American literature anthology owned by my mother, and remember that as I read it aloud with my mother listening, I had to stop several times because my laughter was making it impossible to keep speaking. That same column, and probably all the others in the series, are presented in this annotated collection. The 'poems' are presented in order for probably the first time since they were originally printed in Don Marquis's original newspaper column. Archy can only type one key at a time on the typewriter, literally by thrusting himself headfirst onto the key. He cannot operate a shift key to create capitalization or punctuation, so the effect of his "vers libre" (free verse) poems are--at least to his mind--unintentionally hilarious. What a great collection! And the annotations add to the background information in helpful ways, giving context to Don Marquis's world of prohibition, WWI, speakeasys, and the slang of the day. A masterpiece of early twentieth-century humor!

Have you been looking for a job and can't find one? Perhaps an internship or apprentice program would work. It did for Archey! His poet's soul has been reincarnated into a cocky roach making his literary way through a newspaper reporter's typewriter. Archey speaks to us as he pounds his head (literally) night after night. His poet's vision ignores all reasonable advice from his mentor, Don Marquis. As Archey polishes his art, the reader sees that nothing much has changed in the nearly one hundred years since Archey hit the keys. Don't miss a little sage advice from the floor.

Archy is a familiar character in an unfamiliar situation, a witty and sympathetic poet stuck in the body of a cockroach thanks to reincarnation. His cat friend Mehitabel is equally interesting, claiming she is actually the reincarnated Cleopatra, which I think most cats believe. Each poem is funny and memorable, made all the more charming by their e.e. cummings style of writing...because Archy the bug is too small to hit the shift key of his unknowing human's keyboard. He's always in character, which is pretty impressive to write as though one were a cockroach...it almost makes you believe in Archy at any age, and that is a treasure.

I cannot recommend this book enough, though I do say that often in my reviews...because I only review books I love or hate. I LOVE this book. I performed parts of it for competitive Speech in high school and a great many people who hear a great deal of poetry thought it was great. It stands alone in terms of style and subject. I haven't read the annotated version, but I think it should be reviewed because it contains all the original poems and extra material. The extra material is new to me, but the poetry is well worth it and the prices are similar. Just buy this book already! You won't regret it.

Generations go by, but Don Marquis's cockroach Archy and his pal, the cat Mehitabel, who originally occupied Marquis's New York newspaper columns nearly a century ago, still have the power to move and amuse, and to speak to us about the human condition. This wonderful roach, a free verse poet's soul in a roach's body, wholly deserves the excellent job that Michael Sims has done in providing us with facts about both Marquis's life and his times. Sims's carefully crafted introduction and annotations serve to put Archy's poems in both the context of their era and of their creator's biography. Michael Sims manages here, as he does so skillfully in his other books, to blend erudition and readability in an engaging and intruiging fashion.
For those who are unacquainted with Archy and Mehitabel, the poems will be a welcome and wonderful discovery. For those who already know and enjoy Marquis's work, Sims's edition will provide a fresh and deeper appreciation.