Charles Heber Clark
Charles Heber Clark, also known by his pseudonym Max Adeler, was an influential American journalist and humorist born in 1841 in Berlin, Maryland. Raised in a family with strong abolitionist beliefs, he began working at a young age due to economic challenges. Clark's journalism career took off in the late 1860s, quickly advancing to an editorial position at The Philadelphia Inquirer. He gained significant popularity for his humorous writings, particularly through his works such as "Out of the Hurly-Burly" (1874) and "Elbow-Room: A Novel Without a Plot" (1876), which celebrated the charm of small-town life through comic vignettes.
Clark's personal life included a marriage to Clara Luckens, with whom he had five children; her passing in 1895 deeply affected him, inspiring his later literary works. In addition to his writing, Clark was involved in various business ventures, notably in the textile industry and as a director at Johnson & Johnson following a merger. He remarried in 1897 and continued his professional endeavors until his death in 1915 in Eagles Mere, Pennsylvania. Clark’s contributions to American humor and literature reflect a blend of personal experience and social commentary prevalent in his time.
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Charles Heber Clark
Writer
- Born: July 11, 1841
- Birthplace: Berlin, Maryland
- Died: August 10, 1915
- Place of death: Eagle's Mere, Pennsylvania
Biography
Charles Heber Clark was a journalist, humorist, and modest industrialist who often wrote under the pseudonym Max Adeler. Clark was born in Berlin, Maryland, in 1841. Clark’s father, William James Clark, a member of the Episcopal clergy, moved the family north, near Philadelphia, to find a church more allied with his abolitionist views.
Clark was pressed into work at fifteen because of economic hardship. He served brief stints as a Union reservist in 1862 and 1863. In 1865, Clark began working in newspapers and proved himself a quick study. Within two months of his hire at The Philadelphia Inquirer, Clark became an editor. By 1867 he had moved on to the Daily Evening Bulletin, where he created his persona as Max Adeler and became a popular humorist.
Clark “married up” in 1871 when he wed Clara Luckens. Clark’s wealthy father-in-law helped him become a shareholder in the Evening Bulletin, and Clark and his wife had five children. The year before, in 1874, Clark had published his most noteworthy book, Out of the Hurly-Burly: Or, Life in an Odd Corner. The humor in Out of the Hurly-Burly placed Clark squarely in the camp of humorists called the Literary Comedians.
Clark followed with his second book of humor, Elbow-Room: A Novel Without a Plot, in 1876. In both Out of the Hurly-Burly, and Elbow-Room, Clark extols the virtues of living in a small town. Both books rely on comic vignettes.
Other works by Clark were not as well received, but The Fortunate Island, and Other Stories published in 1882, may have inspired Mark Twain’s 1889 A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court. Clara Lukens Clark died in 1895. The main character in The Quakeress, published by Clark in 1905, memorializes his first wife.
In 1882, Clark sold his interest in the Evening Bulletin, and bought The Textile Record of America. It became the vehicle for Clark’s editorials supporting tariffs, and opinion pieces promoting a return to a silver standard in parallel with the gold standard. In 1888, Clark became president in a surgical instrument company founded by a former Sunday school pupil. After the company merged with Johnson & Johnson in 1905, Clark became a director. By 1903, Clark had sold The Textile Record of America. Clark married Elizabeth Killé Clark in 1897 and died in Eagles Mere, Pennsylvania, in 1915.