Ellis Parker Butler

Ellis Parker Butler (December 5, 1869 - September 13, 1937) was an American author. He authored more than 30 books and more than 2,000 short stories and essays and is best known for his short story “Pigs - Pigs,” in which the bureaucratic station manager insists on charging cattle a fee for transporting two domestic guinea pigs, which will soon begin to grow in geometric progression. His most famous character was Philo Gubb. His career lasted more than forty years, and his stories, poems, and articles were published in more than 225 magazines. His work appeared alongside the work of his contemporaries, including Mark Twain, Sachs Romer, James B. Hendricks, Burton Braille, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Don Marquis, Will Rogers, and Edgar Rice Burroughs. Despite the enormous amount of his work, Butler spent most of his life as a part-time writer. He worked on a regular basis as a banker and was very active in his local community. Butler was one of the founders of the Danish Medical Club and the American League of Authors and was always present in the literary stage of New York.