the lives and times of archy and mehitabel was published by Doubleday, Doran & Co. in 1940, three years after Marquis’s death. The volume combines all three previous archy collections into a single omnibus, with George Herriman’s illustrations preserved throughout and an introduction by E.B. White that is itself a minor masterpiece of literary appreciation.
White’s introduction (which has been reprinted countless times and is probably the most-read piece of criticism about Marquis) argues that the archy poems are genuine literature, not merely newspaper humor — that Marquis created a poetic voice of real originality and philosophical depth, and that the lowercase format and the animal characters should not obscure the quality of the writing itself.
The omnibus format allows readers to see the full arc of the project: from the early poems’ exuberance and inventiveness, through the middle period’s deepening melancholy, to the final volume’s political engagement and gathering darkness. Read sequentially, the three collections tell a story of aging, loss, and persistence — not just mehitabel’s but archy’s and, implicitly, Marquis’s own.
The book has remained continuously in print since 1940 and has introduced the archy poems to every subsequent generation. It is one of those rare works of popular literature that is also genuinely good — funny, moving, formally inventive, and philosophically serious.
Collecting the lives and times of archy and mehitabel
First edition (Doubleday, Doran & Co., Garden City, NY, 1940): Cloth binding, dust jacket.
Market values:
- First edition, fine/fine: $60–$150
- Very good/very good: $25–$60