Something Else Again

Adams, Franklin P. (Franklin Pierce), 1881-1960Project Gutenberg · United StatesDec 2019

3.2

Word count: 94K words
Chapters: 10

Summary

Project Gutenberg was the first provider of free electronic books, or eBooks. Michael Hart, founder of Project Gutenberg, invented eBooks in 1971 and his memory continues to inspire the creation of eBooks and related technologies today.Something Else Again by Franklin P. AdamsAuthor: Adams, Franklin P. (Franklin Pierce), 1881-1960,Language: English, Class: PS: Language and Literatures: American and Canadian literature, Release Date: Oct 7, 2008

Editor's review

This is a poetry collection by the American humorist poet and columnist Franklin P. Adams, belonging to the tradition of early twentieth-century American newspaper verse and light satirical poetry. Adams was known for his newspaper columns and short, witty metrical verse, and this collection continues that brisk, colloquial style, drawing its subjects mostly from urban life, literary gossip, and everyday observation, with clever rhyming and unexpected endings. For readers interested in how American literature moved from Victorian solemnity toward modern newspaper humor, this collection offers a firsthand sample; the pieces are short and self-contained, making it suitable as light reading in English verse. Note that many of the jokes depend on the news figures and social context of the time and may not all land today, though the wordplay and rhythm remain enjoyable. As a public-domain eBook, it is better suited to researchers, poetry lovers, and English learners using it as language material than to general readers seeking plot or depth.

Who it's for

A good fit for

Literature lovers interested in early twentieth-century American newspaper writing and humorous verse
English learners who want to study English meter and rhyme through short poems
Researchers studying American popular literary traditions and column writing
Readers who like fragmented reading, dipping in for a few pages at a time

Not a good fit for

Readers expecting a full narrative, characters, plot, or long-form structure
Readers insensitive to English poetic rhythm who only want a Chinese translation
Beginners hoping to gain a systematic understanding of American poetry history from this book

Reading tips

You don't need to read cover to cover; pick titles at random from the table of contents and read three to five poems at a time, keeping it light.
Skip allusions involving names at first; after a full pass, return to the notes and background.
Read aloud to feel the rhyme and rhythm; it conveys the humor better than silent reading.
Read alongside material on early twentieth-century American newspaper history to understand where the jokes come from.

About the publisher

Project Gutenberg United States · Founded in 1971

Project Gutenberg is a digital publishing project focused on public-domain ebooks. Its publishing direction centers on classic literary works whose copyright has expired, covering genres such as poetry, drama, fiction, and epic. Representative books include Lyrical Ballads by Wordsworth and Coleridge, Proust's Du côté de chez Swann, Shakespeare's Macbeth and The Complete Works of William Shakespeare, Homer's The Iliad, Dante's La Divina Comèdia: Purgatòri, Cervantes's The History of Don Quixote, Volume 2, and Grahame's The Wind in the Willows. Its author resources consist mainly of classic Western writers such as Wordsworth, Proust, Shakespeare, Homer, Dante, Cervantes, Grahame, and Tolstoy. Its publishing feature is the provision of freely accessible ebooks in EPUB and Kindle formats; it is not a traditional publisher, and publicly available information is limited.

FAQ

Is this a novel or a poetry collection?

This is a poetry collection by Franklin P. Adams, containing short verse and humorous poems. It is not a novel and has no continuous plot; the pieces are relatively independent.

Can I understand it without American historical background?

Some jokes involving news figures and social events of the time will land less well, but pieces built on rhyme, wordplay, and everyday observation can still be enjoyed. Start with the poems about daily life.

Is it suitable for learning English?

It works as verse material: short, with clear rhymes, useful for imitating rhythm and building expressions. But some vocabulary and allusions are dated, so it is not suitable as a modern spoken-English textbook.

Comments

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About the author

Adams, Franklin P. (Franklin Pierce), 1881-1960 Author

Franklin P. Adams (1881–1960), often known by the initials F. P. A., was an American journalist, columnist and writer of light verse. Public information about him is limited, and the details of his life are difficult to set out at length, yet the three works held in this collection reveal the character of his writing: Tobogganing on Parnassus, Something Else Again, and Women I'm Not Married To. The titles themselves suggest a witty, playful spirit. His work consists largely of short poems in strict metre and a light tone, together with humorous sketches, drawing on city life, literary gossip and relations between the sexes, and using rhyme and banter to create irony. Writing of this kind appeared in newspaper columns for ordinary readers and valued rhythm and verbal ingenuity over deep sentiment. Adams holds a place in early twentieth-century American light verse and newspaper humour, and his work is still regarded as a sample of the wit of that era's literary circles.