Humorist Charles Farrar Browne (1834-1867) became America's most internationally celebrated comic writer under his character "Artemus Ward." Rising from printer's apprentice to literary fame, he pioneered deadpan satirical techniques that influenced Mark Twain and generations of comedians. His semiliterate showman persona exposed societal hypocrisies through mangled grammar and logic. Abraham Lincoln famously read Browne's work before presenting the Emancipation Proclamation. Despite his short life, Browne's trailblazing comedic innovations established sophistry-puncturing humor as a vital American tradition that continues through modern satirists.