Don Marquis

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Don Marquis – Life, Work, and Famous Quotes

Don Marquis (1878–1937) was an American humorist, poet, columnist, and playwright best known for creating the literary characters Archy (a cockroach poet) and Mehitabel (a cat). Explore his life, satirical style, and enduring wit through his greatest quotes.

Introduction

Don Marquis is not as widely remembered today as some literary giants—but during his life he was highly influential as a newspaper humorist, poet, and satirist. He blended wit, social observation, and imaginative conceits (like a cockroach typing poems) to critique culture, human nature, and society itself. His legacy lives on primarily through Archy and Mehitabel, but also through numerous columns, plays, and epigrams that sparkle with irony and insight.

Early Life and Family

Donald Robert Perry Marquis was born on July 29, 1878 in Walnut, Illinois. He lost his father (a physician) in 1897, and a brother had died earlier, which left him with family tragedies in his youth. After high school in Walnut (graduated 1894), he briefly attended a preparatory program affiliated with Knox College but left after a short time.

Marquis married Reina Melcher in 1909, and they had two children: a son, Robert (1915–1921), and a daughter, Barbara (1918–1931). After Reina died in 1923, he later married Marjorie Potts Vonnegut in 1926.

In his later years Marquis faced declining health (he suffered multiple strokes) and passed away of a stroke on December 29, 1937 in New York City.

Career, Style & Major Works

Journalism, Columns & Early Work

Marquis began in journalism, working for small-town weeklies, then in Washington, D.C. and Philadelphia, before moving to Atlanta in 1902, where he wrote editorial pieces for the Atlanta News and Atlanta Journal. In 1907 he became associate editor of Uncle Remus’s Magazine, which gave him wider exposure.

In 1912, he relocated to New York and joined The Evening Sun, where he began a daily column called The Sun Dial. Later he joined the New York Tribune (becoming New York Herald Tribune in 1924), writing a daily column such as “The Lantern”.

His columns mixed humorous sketches, satire, quips, and occasional poetry or fictional voices. Many characters appeared in his columns: Old Soak, Hermione, Pete the Pup, Clarence, Warty Bliggins, and notably Archy and Mehitabel.

Archy & Mehitabel

Marquis’s most enduring creation is Archy, a cockroach who in a past life was a poet. Archy types on Marquis’s typewriter by jumping onto keys—but cannot use uppercase letters or punctuation (since he can't operate the shift key). Mehitabel is an alley cat companion of Archy. In the fictional conceit, Archy narrates Mehitabel’s life, musings, and occasional philosophy.

These poems and sketches were published in newspapers, then collected into books such as archy and mehitabel (1927) and later volumes like archy’s life of mehitabel (1933) and archy does his part (1935). The Archy & Mehitabel pieces are satirical, ironic, and sometimes bittersweet—commenting on politics, society, human foibles, aging, and alienation, all through the voices of these anthropomorphic animals.

Marquis also wrote plays, essays, novels, and short stories. Over his lifetime he produced roughly 31 books and plays between 1912 and 1936. One of his popular non-Archy creations was The Old Soak, a comic “hip-flask philosopher” reflecting Prohibition era sensibilities; his play version ran on Broadway (1922–23), and films were adapted from it.

Literary Style & Themes

Marquis’s style is witty, epigrammatic, ironic, and often self-deprecating. He frequently uses humor as a vehicle for social critique.
His conceits (like a cockroach poet) allow him to speak truths about human nature from a removed vantage.
He blends colloquial language, sharp observation, and poetic sensibility—sometimes with a tinge of melancholy or cynicism.
He had a gift for aphorisms and short, penetrating lines.

During his time, he was one of the most quoted writers in New York’s literary and journalistic circles.

Legacy & Influence

Marquis was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Letters in 1923. His characters (Archy and Mehitabel) have been anthologized repeatedly, still enjoy popular reprints, and are often cited in discussions of humorous poetry and satire. The site preserves many of his works and biographical texts. In 1943, a U.S. Liberty ship was named USS Don Marquis in his honor. Though less widely studied in modern academia, his influence endures in humor writing, satirical poetry, and in how literary characters can critique the human condition through distance.

Selected Quotes

Here are some of Don Marquis’s best-known lines, which showcase his wit and insight:

“Procrastination is the art of keeping up with yesterday.” “If you make people think they’re thinking, they’ll love you; But if you really make them think, they’ll hate you.” “When a man tells you that he got rich through hard work, ask him: ‘Whose?’” “Publishing a book of poetry is like dropping a rose petal down the Grand Canyon and waiting for the echo.” “There is nothing so habit-forming as money.” “The trouble with the public is that there is too much of it; what we need in public is less quantity and more quality.” “In all systems of theology the devil figures as a male person. Yes, it is women who keep the church going.”

These quotes reflect his playful skepticism, his observation of human folly, and his ability to wrap a sharp thought in a memorable turn of phrase.

Lessons & Reflections

• Use humor as lens: Marquis shows that wit and satire can open space to critique and reflect, rather than simply mock.

• Distance yields insight: By speaking through a cockroach poet, he attains a perspective outside human vanity.

• Brevity can carry weight: His short quips often deliver more punch than longer essays.

• Observe the mundane: Marquis turned everyday observations—money, procrastination, public life—into incisive commentary.

• Art and folly coexist: He acknowledged both the absurdity and beauty in human strivings.