By
Richard Griffin
Richard
Griffin was born in 1857 on New York to a family of English extraction. When he
was a child, they moved to a cranberry bog in New Jersey. At the age of sixteen
he started work as a clerk in New York City. In his spare time he was involved
in amateur theatrical productions, subsequently becoming a professional actor
and touring extensively throughout the United States and abroad. He served in
the Spanish-American war of 1895. According to his own account, he also served
in World War I as an intelligence officer, and arrested a German spy after a
punch-up. Before and after this service, he lived in Greenwich Village and
other parts of Manhattan, and wrote poetry which he self-published. From
internal evidence it seems likely that at some stage he spent time in a mental
institution. His date of death is unknown but was subsequent to 1931, the date
of The Camel's Last Gasp, his last
book.
His
works have a certain quirky charm which reminds one somewhat of the Dada and
Surrealist poetry, and show maybe even closer connections to the movies of the
Marx Brothers, W. C. Fields, and the Ring Lardner of nonsense plays like The Tridget of Greva. They have a
style and charm of their own which has given him a certain cult following. An acquired taste, maybe -- but one well
worth acquiring.
