On December 29, 1937, Don Marquis died at age 59 in New York
City. Born in Illinois and educated at Knox College, Marquis began
his career in Atlanta, where he worked for the Atlanta Journal and
served as an editor and regular writer for Joel Chandler Harris and
his "Uncle Remus's Magazine." He moved to New York in 1912,
where he quickly became one of the best-known columnists in the
city. While he also worked as a poet and a playwright, he is
primarily remembered in literary history as the creator of "Archy
and Mehitabel," a cockroach and a cat who offered wry and witty
reflections about life throughout the 1920s and 30s. Some of his
best observations are memorable examples of oxymoronica:

"Some persons are likeable in spite of their unswerving integrity."

"The more conscious a philosopher is of the weak spots of his theory,
the more certain he is to speak with an air of final authority."

"Ours is a world where people don't know what they want
and are willing to go through hell to get it."