Rhyming humorist Ogden Nash (1902–1971) turned English upside-down with his rascal wit and joyful mangling of grammar. Born in Rye, New York, he started out as a teacher and salesman, eventually joining The New Yorker in the early 1930s.

“Well I have learned that life is something about which you can't conclude anything except that it is full of vicissitudes,” he wrote. “And when you expect logic you only come across eccentricitudes.”

His debut book, Hard Lines (1931), gave Americans a reason to smile during the Great Depression. With clever rhymes and a gift for playful absurdity, Nash quickly won hearts of all ages through humor that sparkled on radio and television.

Nash's outrageous couplets ignored the laws of writing and danced gleefully with made-up words. He described himself as “a good bad poet rather than a bad good poet.”

Essayist Basil Bottle praised his insight into “what is abidingly and harmlessly funny,” capturing the vision and vicissitudes of the poetic life.

Nash published 20 books and wrote lyrics for musicals, including One Touch of Venus (1943) and Two’s Company (1952). Even when criticized, Marlene Dietrich called his work “too sexy and profane,” he never stopped poking fun at the world’s seriousness.

He believed in celebrating ordinary life through clever verse. “Too clever is dumb,” he once quipped. “Humor is the best means of surviving in a difficult world.”