Wallace Irwin
Encyclopedia
Wallace Irwin was an American writer. Over the course of his long career, Irwin wrote humorous sketches, light verse, screenplays, short stories, novels, nautical lays, aphorisms, journalism, political satire, lyrics for Broadway musicals, and the libretto for an opera. With his The Julius Caesar Murder Case (1935), he created a subgenre within detective fiction, the mystery novel set in antiquity.
, Irwin grew up in Colorado and went to California to attend Stanford University
. As editor of two campus publications, he lampooned faculty in verse and was expelled, as he later boasted, for having a character that “savored of brimstone” . He moved to San Francisco and began his career as a journalist for William Randolph Hearst
’s Examiner and other papers. With the encouragement of Gelett Burgess
, Irwin branched into poetry with The Love Sonnets of a Hoodlum (1901), followed by Nautical Lays of a Landsman (1904),At The Sign of the Dollar (1905), Ballads of Chinatown (1906), and The Love Sonnets of a Car Conductor (1908). Between 1913 and 1935, fourteen of his novels or short stories were adapted by himself or others for film.
Irwin often wrote under a pseudonym or presented himself as the editor, translator, or sardonic discoverer of works by others. His Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam, Jr. purports to be his translation from a language he calls “Mango-Bornese”. Irwin’s most sustained impersonation began in 1907 with the serialization of his Letters of a Japanese Schoolboy in Colliers
magazine. He wrote in a stereotypical fractured English in the persona of a thirty-five year old “boy” Hashimura Togo. The fourth installment of the series, entitled “Yellow Peril”, featured Irwin posed in yellow face make-up for a portrait photograph of Togo. The photo fooled readers for months, whereupon Colliers produced twin photos, Irwin as Togo and Irwin “before he was Japanned”. Irwin’s racial clichés brought him to the heights of success, including praise from Mark Twain
who found Togo a delightful creation and the New York Globe which hailed the book as “the greatest joke in America”. Irwin went on to write three more Togo books, and in 1917 Hollywood followed with the silent film comedy Hashimura Togo.
The Togo fad was built upon Irwin’s creation of a Japanese caricature at a time when many Americans admired Japan for its recent victory in the Russo-Japanese War
, 1904-05. However, after World War I
, American opinion shifted as the United States and Japan competed for military and economic advantage in Asia. Irwin’s approach likewise turned, resulting in Seed of the Sun with its dire warning that Japanese immigrants represent both the “nefarious alliance of Asiatics and speculative capital” and their emperor’s plan for them to “marry Euro-American women in order to promote their race” .
Success as a humorist allowed Irwin to devote himself to what he considered his serious work, novels and articles with social and political purpose, writing that is now largely forgotten when it is not being cited by historians as representative of pre-World War II racism. It is his “Rhyme of the Chivalrous Shark”, a playful tale of a shark who will not eat women or children that seems most likely to survive as his legacy.
Wallace Irwin died in Southern Pines, North Carolina
. That same year, 1959, his personal papers, including manuscripts to novels and poems, correspondence, freelance journalism, and an unpublished autobiography, were donated to the Bancroft Library at the University of California, Berkeley
.
Biography
A native of Oneida, New YorkOneida, New York
Oneida is a city in Madison County located west of Oneida Castle and east of Canastota, New York, United States. The population was 10,987 at the 2000 census. The city, like both Oneida County and the nearby silver and china maker, takes its name from the Oneida tribe...
, Irwin grew up in Colorado and went to California to attend Stanford University
Stanford University
The Leland Stanford Junior University, commonly referred to as Stanford University or Stanford, is a private research university on an campus located near Palo Alto, California. It is situated in the northwestern Santa Clara Valley on the San Francisco Peninsula, approximately northwest of San...
. As editor of two campus publications, he lampooned faculty in verse and was expelled, as he later boasted, for having a character that “savored of brimstone” . He moved to San Francisco and began his career as a journalist for William Randolph Hearst
William Randolph Hearst
William Randolph Hearst was an American business magnate and leading newspaper publisher. Hearst entered the publishing business in 1887, after taking control of The San Francisco Examiner from his father...
’s Examiner and other papers. With the encouragement of Gelett Burgess
Gelett Burgess
Frank Gelett Burgess was an artist, art critic, poet, author and humorist. An important figure in the San Francisco Bay Area literary renaissance of the 1890s, particularly through his iconoclastic little magazine, The Lark, he is best known as a writer of nonsense verse...
, Irwin branched into poetry with The Love Sonnets of a Hoodlum (1901), followed by Nautical Lays of a Landsman (1904),At The Sign of the Dollar (1905), Ballads of Chinatown (1906), and The Love Sonnets of a Car Conductor (1908). Between 1913 and 1935, fourteen of his novels or short stories were adapted by himself or others for film.
Irwin often wrote under a pseudonym or presented himself as the editor, translator, or sardonic discoverer of works by others. His Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam, Jr. purports to be his translation from a language he calls “Mango-Bornese”. Irwin’s most sustained impersonation began in 1907 with the serialization of his Letters of a Japanese Schoolboy in Colliers
Collier's Weekly
Collier's Weekly was an American magazine founded by Peter Fenelon Collier and published from 1888 to 1957. With the passage of decades, the title was shortened to Collier's....
magazine. He wrote in a stereotypical fractured English in the persona of a thirty-five year old “boy” Hashimura Togo. The fourth installment of the series, entitled “Yellow Peril”, featured Irwin posed in yellow face make-up for a portrait photograph of Togo. The photo fooled readers for months, whereupon Colliers produced twin photos, Irwin as Togo and Irwin “before he was Japanned”. Irwin’s racial clichés brought him to the heights of success, including praise from Mark Twain
Mark Twain
Samuel Langhorne Clemens , better known by his pen name Mark Twain, was an American author and humorist...
who found Togo a delightful creation and the New York Globe which hailed the book as “the greatest joke in America”. Irwin went on to write three more Togo books, and in 1917 Hollywood followed with the silent film comedy Hashimura Togo.
The Togo fad was built upon Irwin’s creation of a Japanese caricature at a time when many Americans admired Japan for its recent victory in the Russo-Japanese War
Russo-Japanese War
The Russo-Japanese War was "the first great war of the 20th century." It grew out of rival imperial ambitions of the Russian Empire and Japanese Empire over Manchuria and Korea...
, 1904-05. However, after World War I
World War I
World War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...
, American opinion shifted as the United States and Japan competed for military and economic advantage in Asia. Irwin’s approach likewise turned, resulting in Seed of the Sun with its dire warning that Japanese immigrants represent both the “nefarious alliance of Asiatics and speculative capital” and their emperor’s plan for them to “marry Euro-American women in order to promote their race” .
Success as a humorist allowed Irwin to devote himself to what he considered his serious work, novels and articles with social and political purpose, writing that is now largely forgotten when it is not being cited by historians as representative of pre-World War II racism. It is his “Rhyme of the Chivalrous Shark”, a playful tale of a shark who will not eat women or children that seems most likely to survive as his legacy.
Wallace Irwin died in Southern Pines, North Carolina
Southern Pines, North Carolina
Southern Pines is a town in Moore County, North Carolina, United States. The population was 10,918 at the 2000 census.-Geography:Southern Pines is located at ....
. That same year, 1959, his personal papers, including manuscripts to novels and poems, correspondence, freelance journalism, and an unpublished autobiography, were donated to the Bancroft Library at the University of California, Berkeley
University of California, Berkeley
The University of California, Berkeley , is a teaching and research university established in 1868 and located in Berkeley, California, USA...
.
External links
- At the Stevenson Fountain, short radio reading from California Legacy ProjectCalifornia Legacy ProjectThe California Legacy Project began in 2000 as a project at Santa Clara University in Santa Clara, CA and later partnered with Heyday Books in Berkeley, CA. The project uses a research team of SCU interns to create radio scripts for the radio anthology "Your California Legacy" on KAZU 90.3 FM,...
. - Guide to the Wallace Irwin Papers at The Bancroft Library