Charles Farrar Browne is often called the first standup comedian. He was, in the 1860s, wildly famous, but his early death, and the soaring career of one of his friends, have contributed to Browne fading from the spotlight in history.

Research:

“Born 1834; Married 1835. Artemus Ward’s Alleged Widow Claims His Estate.” The Savannah Morning News. April 15, 1891. https://www.newspapers.com/image/852548808/?match=1&terms=artemus%20ward
Britannica, The Editors of Encyclopaedia. "Artemus Ward". Encyclopedia Britannica, 22 Apr. 2024, https://www.britannica.com/biography/Artemus-Ward
Dahl, Curtis. “Artemus Ward: Comic Panoramist.” The New England Quarterly, vol. 32, no. 4, 1959, pp. 476–85. JSTOR, https://doi.org/10.2307/362502
Hingston, Edward P. “The Genial Showman, Reminiscences of the Life of Artemus Ward.” London: Chatto and Windus. 1881. https://archive.org/details/genialshowmanrem00hingiala/page/n5/mode/2up
Hofferth, Micah. “Charles Farrar Browne, the Sometimes-racist Father of Standup Comedy.” Vulture. Feb. 28, 2012. https://www.vulture.com/2012/02/charles-farrar-browne-the-sometimes-racist-father-of-standup-comedy.html
“Mark Twain on Artemus Ward.” The Albany Evening Journal. Nov. 29, 1871. https://twain.lib.virginia.edu/roughingit/lecture/awlectaj.html
Reed, John Q. “Artemus Ward’s First Lecture.” American Literature, vol. 32, no. 3, 1960, pp. 317–19. JSTOR, http://www.jstor.org/stable/2922080
Seitz, Don C. “Artemus Ward.” Harper & Brothers. 1919. Accessed online: https://archive.org/stream/artemuswardchar00seituoft/artemuswardchar00seituoft_djvu.txt
“Ward, Artemus (1834-1867).” The Vault at Pfaff’s, Lehigh University. https://pfaffs.web.lehigh.edu/node/54123
Ward, Artemus. “The Complete Works of Artemus Ward.” https://www.gutenberg.org/files/6946/6946-h/6946-h.htm#bio

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Charles Farrar Browne, the First Standup Comedian