"It is Johnson's gift that he can make his subjects human and fallible enough that we would...recognize them instantly, while also illuminating what made them heroes." --Washington Post Book World on Heroes

"Johnson is a clear, intelligent, forceful writer, and nothing if not thorough." --Wall Street Journal

Paul Johnson, the acclaimed author of Creators, Heroes, and the New York Times bestseller Intellectuals, returns with a captivating collection of biographical portraits of the Western world's greatest wits and humorists. With chapters dedicated to history's sharpest tongues and most piercing pens, including Benjamin Franklin, Toulouse-Lautrec, G.K. Chesterton, Damon Runyan, W.C. Fields, the Marx Brothers, and many more, Johnson's Humorists is an exciting compendium of our most enduring comical and satirical innovators.