Playing It Straight

Jennifer Greenhill is Assistant Professor of Art History at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign. Her publications have appeared in Elective Affinities, Art History, and American Art. She has received research grants for Playing It Straight from the American Council of Learned Societies, the Luce Foundation, the Wyeth Foundation, the Smithsonian, and the National Endowment for the Humanities.

• Acknowledgments Introduction Chapter 1. Winslow Homer's Visual Deadpan Chapter 2. Laughing with J.G. Brown, E.W. Perry, and Thomas Nast Chapter 3. William Holbrook Beard Burlesques the Monster Museum Chapter 4. Cosmopolitan Satire in Augustus Saint-Gaudens and Henry James Chapter 5. Exchanging Jokes with John Haberle Epilogue Notes List of Illustrations Index

"An accomplished and fascinating book... It is one that will quickly become essential to any scholar looking to understand the art and culture of Gilded Age America." -- Peter Messent Journal of American Studies "Greenhill offers a serious, intricate, and significant study of different types of humor operating in American visual arts from the Civil War to the turn of the 20th centh century..." -- J. Simon CHOICE Magazine