The Happy Bookers: A Playful History of Librarians and Their World from the Stone Age to the Distant Future

by Richard Armour, Campbell Grant (Illustrator)

The author and artist humorously trace the steps of librarians through the centuries

Genres: Humor, History, Nonfiction, Books About Books

134 pages, Hardcover

Published January 1, 1976

About the author

Richard Armour, a college professor of English who specialized in Chaucer and the English Romantic poets, was best known as a prolific author of light verse and wacky parodies of academic scholarship. He was a professor of English at Scripps College in Claremont from 1945 to 1966.

Armour was raised in Pomona, California, where his father owned a drugstore. He graduated from Pomona College, where he was elected to Phi Beta Kappa, then obtained his master's and Ph.D. in English literature at Harvard. He was a Harvard research fellow at the Victoria and Albert Museum library in London.

Reviews

[Kaethe · Rating 4 out of 5]

Long ago, but as it happens, not very far away I had a copy of a book by Armour that my father picked up for me. Maybe it was the Academic Bestiary, maybe it was Running Around in Academic Circles, but there are a slew of his titles I've read at one time or another. College and University libraries all have various titles. Probably there's a rule of thumb about number of undergraduates multiplied by graduate students divided by number of poorly paid and benefitless adjuncts = number of Armour titles in the library. Plus some fine print about the grants applied for to received ratio and something else about athletics standings. I don't know exactly, only library school graduates who advanced beyond high school algebra two are entrusted with the sacred formula.
Anyway, despite having read quite a few of his books over the years, when I thought of him recently and looked up his bibliography I was staggered. He wrote a lot of books. Sure, you could get away with 125 pages, many of them line drawings of young women with bizarrely high breasts being chased by older men in a variety of historical costumes. But still.
So having finished two months of Halloweeny books full of murder and monsters and such it looks as though mid-20th century popular USian humor may be my next big jag. There's a Bombeck in the queue. I'm not committing myself, there is no surer guarantee that I will immediately regret the idea. But maybe more Armour will make an appearance. And Mencken, I've always meant to read more of him.

Library copy

[Cricket Muse · Rating 4 out of 5]

Armour, a prolific punster of over 50 books, creates a light-hearted history of the librarian. Written in 1976, it's a tribute to celebrating the double anniversary of the American Library Association and the Dewey Decimal system.
Interwoven in all the puns are history nuggets about the library and their keepers. It is difficult not to laugh out loud at some of the humor. People overhearing your snickers will want to know what's so funny. Save time and hand them the book to enjoy.

[Kristen Northrup · Rating 3 out of 5]

Quick, cute read. (Caveat: I'm a librarian.) Heavy on the puns. Mostly British humor/vocabulary, but nothing too obscure. Many of the jokes about modern librarianship ring remarkably true despite being nearly 40 years old. The illustrations were unimpressive, however.

[Maryellen · Rating 2 out of 5]

Silly book filled with cheesy puns and jokes. For library staff who can laugh at themselves.

[J · Rating 4 out of 5]

Interesting font and frequent illustrations make this a short and fun book to read. It contains a tongue-in-cheek account of librarians.

Light and good natured with subtle humor. Nothing controversial or inappropriate, except for one semi-nude illustration in the Ancient Egypt section.

Initially, I thought it was not really my sense of humor, but I appreciated its intellectual quality and the fact that it didn't devolve into vulgarity or crassness in the name of humor. I did find it a little frustrating that I couldn't always tell what was fact or fiction in this history book.

Once the book entered modern history, I was able to relate to it more and found it mildly humorous. When the book got to Colonial America and onward, I really enjoyed it!

Intellectual humor - subtle.

[Terry · Rating 3 out of 5]

Armour's humour seemed a bit forced in this outing. Maybe just dated. Still, one can't help but be intrigued, nearly three decades later with the chapter entitled "Librarians Today and in the Future."

[Krista the Krazy Kataloguer · Rating 4 out of 5]

A must-read for librarians!

[Sara]

I chose this book because it sounds very interesting and possible humerous which is always a bonus. I would be interested to learn about the history of librarians.