The Cruise of the Jasper B was published by D. Appleton & Co. in 1916. The novel is a comic adventure following a newspaper editor who decides to abandon his conventional life, buys a decrepit houseboat (the Jasper B), and plans to sail it somewhere romantic. The houseboat, however, proves to contain unexpected cargo: a skeleton, a mysterious document that may be a treasure map, and various other elements that generate a plot involving pirates, smugglers, eccentric neighbors, and romantic complications.
The novel demonstrates Marquis’s ability to sustain comedy across a longer form than his usual newspaper columns. The humor is gentle and absurdist — situations escalate through accumulation rather than through the sharp satirical edge of his column work. The protagonist is a recognizable Marquis type: a man of moderate abilities and immoderate dreams who finds that reality is both more complicated and more entertaining than his fantasies.
The book is not Marquis’s most significant work — that distinction belongs unambiguously to the archy poems — but it shows a different aspect of his talent: the ability to construct a narrative, manage multiple characters, and maintain comic momentum across two hundred pages. It was commercially successful on publication and confirmed Marquis’s reputation as one of the most versatile humorists of his generation.
Collecting The Cruise of the Jasper B
First edition (D. Appleton & Co., New York, 1916): Cloth binding.
Market values:
- First edition, fine: $25–$60
- Very good: $10–$25