John R. Musick Scrapbook

Collection

Identifier: MS M4

Staff Only

Scope and Contents

Scrapbook of articles, stories, poems, and letters to the editor which John Roy Musick (1849-1901) wrote under his own name as well as under several pseudonyms. Musick was a Kirksville, Missouri, newspaper publisher (The Tattler, 1875 January-July), attorney and author. His best-known work was the 12-volume Columbian Historical Novels (1892); a 13th volume was published about the time of his death.

Dates

Creation: 1849-1901

Creator

Musick, John R. (John Roy), 1849-1901 (Person)

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Copyright

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Biographical Note

John Roy Musick (1849-1901), the son of Ephraim Jenkins and Mary Ann (Prince) Musick, was born in St. Louis County, Missouri, but raised on a farm near Kirksville, Adair County, Missouri. He earned a Bachelor of Scientific Didactics from the First District Normal School (now Truman State University) in Kirksville in 1874 then taught one term of school before reading law with a Kirksville attorney. While studying law, he published a short-lived newspaper (1875 January-July) in Kirksville called "The Tattler". He passed the Bar exam in 1876 and practiced law until 1882 when he decided to become a full-time author. He had been a successful author of newspaper articles, poetry and historical short stories since his teens.

Musick's best-known work was the 12-volume Columbian Historical Novels originally published by Funk and Wagnalls in 1892. A thirteenth volume was published about the time of his death in 1901. Telling the history of the United States "from the time of Columbus to the present" in a fictional narrative, Musick took great care, as he says in the Preface, "to have historical events and dates correct, and to not confound truth with fiction". Two other publications of particular home-town interest were "Crutches for Sale: An Osteopathic Novel" (Chicago: F. Tennyson Neely, 1899), based on a play by Dr. William Smith and Professor Robert Darton of Kirksville, and "In the Whirl of the Tornado: A Personal Experience", Century Magazine (1899 August) 58:4, an account of the April 1899 tornado that destroyed a large section of Kirksville.

Extent

1 volume

Language of Materials

English

Additional Description

Arrangement

This collection is organized into a single series - John R. Musick's Scrapbook, between 1849-1901.

Related Materials

Selby, P.O. "John R. Musick" in Bits of Adair County History. Vol. 6: January 1972-November 1974. Typescript, 1974. (Series of articles published in The Kirksville Daily Express and broadcast over KIRX Radio, Kirksville.)

Processing Information

The left side of the handwritten title page of this volume of newspaper clippings has been torn; the title now reads:

[---] Musicks Scrap book

[---] original articles

[---] have been published

[---] MUSICK.

Some of the articles, stories, poems, and letters to the editor he included were written under the pseudonyms Benjamin Broadaxe (or Broadax) and Ebenezer Slypole. His biographer indicates he wrote under many names, some of which no one, including his own family, was ever aware(1). The volume supposedly contains only his work, but there are also some articles by Don Jenardo, a name that has been identified by some as the pseudonym of John Woodruff Lewis. Although all articles have all been clipped without publication name or date, that information is occasionally included in the text.

Musick used the US Patent Office's 1856 Report to the House of Representatives as his scrapbook. Some pages do not have clippings pasted to them and other pages were cut from the volume, so the articles may not be as long as the page numbers indicate.