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The Annotated Archy and Mehitabel
Generations of readers have delighted in the work of the great American humorist Don Marquis, who was frequently compared to Mark Twain. These free-verse poems, which first appeared in Marquis's New York newspaper columns, revolve around the escapades of Archy, the philosophical cockroach who was once a poet, and Mehitabel, a streetwise alley cat who was once Cleopatra. Reincarnated as the lowest creatures on the social scale, they prowl the rowdy streets of New York City in between the world wars. The antics of these two immortal characters are now made available for the first time in their original order of publication in this unique, comprehensive collection, which features many poems never before reprinted.
First time in Penguin Classics
Archy and Mehitabel is considered the inspiration for E.B. White's Charlotte's Web
Features many new poems never reprinted since they were first published early in the twentieth century Introduction places Marquis in the context of American humor and the history of satire
First time in Penguin Classics
Archy and Mehitabel is considered the inspiration for E.B. White's Charlotte's Web
Features many new poems never reprinted since they were first published early in the twentieth century Introduction places Marquis in the context of American humor and the history of satire
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About the author
Don Marquis
117 books59 followersDonald Robert Perry "Don" Marquis was a newspaper columnist as well as a playwright, novelist, and poet, best known for his "Archy and Mehitabel" free verse and his "Old Soak" anti-Prohibition play.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 32 reviews
November 1, 2017
Archy Turns Highbrow for a Minute
boss please let me
be highbrow for
a minute i
have just been eating
my way through some of
the books on your desk
and i have digested two of them
and it occurs to me
that antoninus the emperor
and epictetus the slave
arrived at the same
philosophy of life
that there is neither mastery
nor slavery
except as it exists
in the attitude of the soul
toward the world
thank you for listening
to a poor little
cockroach
boss please let me
be highbrow for
a minute i
have just been eating
my way through some of
the books on your desk
and i have digested two of them
and it occurs to me
that antoninus the emperor
and epictetus the slave
arrived at the same
philosophy of life
that there is neither mastery
nor slavery
except as it exists
in the attitude of the soul
toward the world
thank you for listening
to a poor little
cockroach
Read
June 12, 2015Dear me, vers libre poet reincarnated into the body of a cockroach headbutting his poems out on Don Marquis's keyboard.
What's not to love?
Whimsical, poignant, wise, charming as hell.
Though I'm a Mehitabel boy myself.
Toujours gai, toujours gai.
What's not to love?
Whimsical, poignant, wise, charming as hell.
Though I'm a Mehitabel boy myself.
Toujours gai, toujours gai.
June 30, 2025
Metamorphosis but the roach still has artistic ambitions and also he’s unionizing the other roaches.
June 17, 2011
I have loved Mehitabel & Archy ever since discovering them in high school.... am happy to have discovered this Kindle version of the book so they will always be close at hand. toujours gai! (sadly, I have discovered several of my favorites to be missing... dropping to 4 stars)
June 21, 2014
Don Marquis’s creation and alter ego Archy lit up the pages of the Sun Dial when he was first introduced back in 1916 and made Marquis’s name famous. Using the fictional cockroach as his mouthpiece, Mr. Marquis found him a perfect speaker for his own brand of satire, wit and intelligence. Back then, anybody who wrote for a newspaper was expected to be educated and erudite and it shows here, as Mr. Marquis makes references to Montaigne, Marlowe, Poe, Shaw, Dickens, et al., in his pointed critiques of the world’s ills and mankind’s foibles.
Mr. Marquis’s six-legged creation started off as being rather despairing of his insectile nature—understandable, considering that he was once a human vers libre poet who fell on hard times through his transmogrification into a cockroach. But he gradually embraced his new existence, pointing out how man’s brief little authority displays the arrogance of homo sapiens and that even the most powerful of creatures can be brought low by so-called lower creatures like himself.
Archy’s wry, witty and educated outlook was brilliantly counterpointed by Mehitabel, a sassy alley cat with more pride than brains and so willfully contradictory that her tales were baffling even as they entertained. Convinced she was a reincarnation of Cleopatra, she claimed to be a lady yet was swift to lash out with the viciousness of a street thug. She moaned about how low she’d fallen, forced to dig into trashcans for sustenance, but proclaimed that she remained ever happy and lively, toujours gai, as she put it. She was too proud to be a kept kitty but quickly succumbed to the lures of any pampered house tomcat with a bell around its neck when he urged her to enter into a human domicile for a quick nip.
Archy accepted that his new life would consist of getting nearly trod upon, swimming in other people’s soups and eating the refuse from garbage cans; Mehitabel pretended to accept but inwardly rebelled. Mehitabel was content to relate her tales to Archy but he was quick to hide when she got a certain hungry look in her eye or talked about eating cockroaches. Their saga was set against the larger backdrop of America, before, during and after WWI. Far from being distant from America, Archy’s fortunes were a fixed mirror to the changes in the world around him.
Thus, The Annotated Archy and Mehitabel remains both topical and timeless, a fascinating literary reflection of a bygone era and the ongoing struggle of mankind for, with or against his own environment.
Mr. Marquis’s six-legged creation started off as being rather despairing of his insectile nature—understandable, considering that he was once a human vers libre poet who fell on hard times through his transmogrification into a cockroach. But he gradually embraced his new existence, pointing out how man’s brief little authority displays the arrogance of homo sapiens and that even the most powerful of creatures can be brought low by so-called lower creatures like himself.
Archy’s wry, witty and educated outlook was brilliantly counterpointed by Mehitabel, a sassy alley cat with more pride than brains and so willfully contradictory that her tales were baffling even as they entertained. Convinced she was a reincarnation of Cleopatra, she claimed to be a lady yet was swift to lash out with the viciousness of a street thug. She moaned about how low she’d fallen, forced to dig into trashcans for sustenance, but proclaimed that she remained ever happy and lively, toujours gai, as she put it. She was too proud to be a kept kitty but quickly succumbed to the lures of any pampered house tomcat with a bell around its neck when he urged her to enter into a human domicile for a quick nip.
Archy accepted that his new life would consist of getting nearly trod upon, swimming in other people’s soups and eating the refuse from garbage cans; Mehitabel pretended to accept but inwardly rebelled. Mehitabel was content to relate her tales to Archy but he was quick to hide when she got a certain hungry look in her eye or talked about eating cockroaches. Their saga was set against the larger backdrop of America, before, during and after WWI. Far from being distant from America, Archy’s fortunes were a fixed mirror to the changes in the world around him.
Thus, The Annotated Archy and Mehitabel remains both topical and timeless, a fascinating literary reflection of a bygone era and the ongoing struggle of mankind for, with or against his own environment.
August 25, 2009
Though dated in places, this collection of Don Marquis' Archy & Mehitabel columns from the late teens - early twenties is also still a lot of fun. I should state right here that I have never been able to get much into poetry. It's kind of like jazz to me - I can admire a good piece, but as a whole, I find myself easily distracted. Yep, I know I'm probably missing some of the wonders of the world, and I regret this. Where I'm getting with this, is that for me to pick up a book of free verse poetry and actually enjoy it takes a writer gifted with some inventive trickery. Don Marquis is definitely that. If you think that a series of poems in the voice of a vers libre poet who has transmigrated into the body of a cockroach is something to be flip about, though, you are wrong. Marquis, if nothing else, was a terrific cynic and wonderful humorist in his day. Through the columns and poems, Archy emerges as a nuanced and opinionated little cuss that you can't help but find yourself believing in full-bore. After a year or so into the anthology, I actually had to remind myself that a cockroach wasn't banging this out laboriously with his calloused little brow. Forays into the many lives of Mehitabel the cat are wonderful little vignettes of tragi-comedy that pepper Archy's more political leanings. Any fans of Mencken, Thurber, or even Twain should give Archy & Mehitabel a go. Toujours gai, I say, toujours gai.
September 6, 2018
One of my favourite books of all time.
This is the annotated edition with notes and the first collection to include all the early poems in the chronological order in which they were written. They aren't poems in any ordinary sense but free verse episodes, and I am extremely impressed with the sheer quantity of great ideas they toy with. Most of these ideas have some weirdness in them and some are extremely weird. There are enough great ideas here to keep a battalion of fantasy writers busy for years.
Many of the ironies essential to these ideas are exquisite. Tired of his life as a cockroach, Archy commits suicide in order to be reborn as some other animal; his luck is to be reborn as a different but absolutely identical cockroach. Two philosophers argue about whether there is life after death and commit suicide in order to see who is right. The one who does believe in life after death is extinguished forever. The one who doesn't achieves reincarnation. There are ghosts terrified of spiritualists who must perform like puppets when they are summoned by the clairvoyants. The tone is frequently very dark. Themes include antinatalism among many many others.
These are bitter fantasies that often speak about real life very incisively.
"There is always a comforting thought
in time of trouble when it is not
our trouble."
This is the most whimsical book I have ever read; strangely it is probably also the most poignant.
This is the annotated edition with notes and the first collection to include all the early poems in the chronological order in which they were written. They aren't poems in any ordinary sense but free verse episodes, and I am extremely impressed with the sheer quantity of great ideas they toy with. Most of these ideas have some weirdness in them and some are extremely weird. There are enough great ideas here to keep a battalion of fantasy writers busy for years.
Many of the ironies essential to these ideas are exquisite. Tired of his life as a cockroach, Archy commits suicide in order to be reborn as some other animal; his luck is to be reborn as a different but absolutely identical cockroach. Two philosophers argue about whether there is life after death and commit suicide in order to see who is right. The one who does believe in life after death is extinguished forever. The one who doesn't achieves reincarnation. There are ghosts terrified of spiritualists who must perform like puppets when they are summoned by the clairvoyants. The tone is frequently very dark. Themes include antinatalism among many many others.
These are bitter fantasies that often speak about real life very incisively.
"There is always a comforting thought
in time of trouble when it is not
our trouble."
This is the most whimsical book I have ever read; strangely it is probably also the most poignant.
August 18, 2016
A classic bit of humor, well worth a re-read.
March 18, 2019
I couldn’t cotton to it.
Too archaic, by jiminy, in language, attitude, and world view.
Too archaic, by jiminy, in language, attitude, and world view.
June 28, 2022
Sui generis
May 1, 2024
don marquis, archy and mehitabel (1916/1973).
:
First published in the Sun Dial column of the New York Sun in 1916. Published as a book in 1927. Illustrated by George Herriman the creator of Krazy Kat.
48 insane free-verse with illustrations. A rich product of Modernism! Archy the cockroach was a free-verse poet in his previous life. He befriends the alley cat, Mehitabel, who tells him that in his previous life she was Cleopatra. Mehitabel is "toujours gai" and loves to live the good life. These two creatures reflect a lot on their own metempsychosis and the transference of memory from one life to another!
The office typewriter being too big, clumsy, and complicated, Archy the cockroach could never manage to type any Capitals. Therefore, everything is printed in small letters in the book. The free-verses document the life of Mehitabel, her sexual exploits, and the customs of NYC, London, and Paris of the 1910s and 20s.
The verses suddenly plunge into reflections on language, history, and philosophy. There are strong references to existentialism and nihilism. The quotation, "Procrastination is the art of keeping up with yesterday" comes from one of the poems.
Mehitabel, while spending time catacombs of Paris, makes another cat friend who tells her that he is the reincarnation of the French poet Francois Villanova. But this cat is too toxic!
Anyway, the poems invite us to reflect on the arbitrary human-manufactured hierarchy of the animal and insect kingdoms. It makes an enormous case for curbing violence against animals, insects, and birds of all kinds, endowing them with enormous sympathy and intellect. The cockroach-eye view of the world also functions as a defamiloarization technique in the interconnected narrative verses!
It seems that the WW1 destroyed all differences between Gods, cats, and cockroaches!
__
#bookstagram #booksbooksbooks #bookshop #bookshelf #bookshelves #modernism #bookphoto #bookpile #bookpic #bookpost #modernpoetry #bookphotography #poetrycommunity #newyorker #bookcommunity #poetrylovers #booknerd #bookworm #bookhoarder #archyandmehitabel #poetrysociety
:
First published in the Sun Dial column of the New York Sun in 1916. Published as a book in 1927. Illustrated by George Herriman the creator of Krazy Kat.
48 insane free-verse with illustrations. A rich product of Modernism! Archy the cockroach was a free-verse poet in his previous life. He befriends the alley cat, Mehitabel, who tells him that in his previous life she was Cleopatra. Mehitabel is "toujours gai" and loves to live the good life. These two creatures reflect a lot on their own metempsychosis and the transference of memory from one life to another!
The office typewriter being too big, clumsy, and complicated, Archy the cockroach could never manage to type any Capitals. Therefore, everything is printed in small letters in the book. The free-verses document the life of Mehitabel, her sexual exploits, and the customs of NYC, London, and Paris of the 1910s and 20s.
The verses suddenly plunge into reflections on language, history, and philosophy. There are strong references to existentialism and nihilism. The quotation, "Procrastination is the art of keeping up with yesterday" comes from one of the poems.
Mehitabel, while spending time catacombs of Paris, makes another cat friend who tells her that he is the reincarnation of the French poet Francois Villanova. But this cat is too toxic!
Anyway, the poems invite us to reflect on the arbitrary human-manufactured hierarchy of the animal and insect kingdoms. It makes an enormous case for curbing violence against animals, insects, and birds of all kinds, endowing them with enormous sympathy and intellect. The cockroach-eye view of the world also functions as a defamiloarization technique in the interconnected narrative verses!
It seems that the WW1 destroyed all differences between Gods, cats, and cockroaches!
__
#bookstagram #booksbooksbooks #bookshop #bookshelf #bookshelves #modernism #bookphoto #bookpile #bookpic #bookpost #modernpoetry #bookphotography #poetrycommunity #newyorker #bookcommunity #poetrylovers #booknerd #bookworm #bookhoarder #archyandmehitabel #poetrysociety
March 27, 2025
I bought this a few years ago because my aunt mentioned how she loved reading this as a child. It must have been reprints, since she grew up in the 1940s and was a baby still when Marquis died. This was a selection of Marquis’ columns featuring Archy, a who is a reincarnated free-verse poet and who creates poems (and commentary) on Marquis's typewriter by jumping on the keys in exchange for crumbs left in the office. Everything is in lower case, because Archy can’t hit the shift key and the letter key at the same time. Mehitabel is an alley cat, allegedly also a reincarnated princess…but this is doubtful. She is a bit of a louche character.
These selected columns from 1916 to 1022 were quite fun to peruse and not as difficult as I had anticipated. Prose poems and commentary on American life at the time. Reading them was like jumping into a time machine. WWI and prohibition and a golden period for print journalism. I do wish there had been a few illustrations in this edition. It would have added a lot to my enjoyment.
These selected columns from 1916 to 1022 were quite fun to peruse and not as difficult as I had anticipated. Prose poems and commentary on American life at the time. Reading them was like jumping into a time machine. WWI and prohibition and a golden period for print journalism. I do wish there had been a few illustrations in this edition. It would have added a lot to my enjoyment.
May 18, 2022
This was recommended by a friend who thought it was great. Archy was a free-verse poet who died and reincarnated as a cockroach. For seven years, Archy wrote a column for the New York Evening Sun by ramming his head into the keys of Don Marquis’ typewriter in his office at night which, of necessity, meant he could not manage capitals or much in the way of punctuation:
From Comma Boss Comma (15 June 1917)
capital t followed by
he idea seems to be
that capital i apostrophe m
ignorant where punctuation
is concerned period capital n followed by
o such thing semi
colon the fact is that
the mechanical exigencies of
the case prevent my use of
all the characters on the
typewriter keyboard period
Mehitabel is Archy’s alley cat pal, down on her luck, but claiming descent from Cleopatra. Much of the freeform poetry here is smart and/or snicker-worthy but the conceit wears decidedly thin after hundreds of pages. It scans slowly (see above). The book needs to be annotated because the subjects – from the First World War and Prohibition – are of their time and need explaining.
Listen to Neil Gaiman read one Archy poem on YouTube (https://tinyurl.com/edwsey9j) and you may save yourself any number of hours that I, unfortunately, will never recover.
From Comma Boss Comma (15 June 1917)
capital t followed by
he idea seems to be
that capital i apostrophe m
ignorant where punctuation
is concerned period capital n followed by
o such thing semi
colon the fact is that
the mechanical exigencies of
the case prevent my use of
all the characters on the
typewriter keyboard period
Mehitabel is Archy’s alley cat pal, down on her luck, but claiming descent from Cleopatra. Much of the freeform poetry here is smart and/or snicker-worthy but the conceit wears decidedly thin after hundreds of pages. It scans slowly (see above). The book needs to be annotated because the subjects – from the First World War and Prohibition – are of their time and need explaining.
Listen to Neil Gaiman read one Archy poem on YouTube (https://tinyurl.com/edwsey9j) and you may save yourself any number of hours that I, unfortunately, will never recover.
September 8, 2008
The first time I ever read about Archy the cockroach who writes free verse ("vers libre") because he's a human poet who died and came back reincarnated as a cockroach, I was hooked. This is hilarious! Don Marquis was a humorist/satirist who wrote a newspaper column back in about 1918 through 1922 in which Archy the Cockroach wrote free verse by butting his insect head onto each typewriter key...but because he couldn't work the shift key on the typewriter, there are no punctuation marks or capitalizations of letters, making it doubly hilarious to read (and sometimes you have to go slowly to make sure you understand where the punctuations marks WOULD go if Archy could put them in). Two of my favorite columns by Archy are where he interviews a mummy in the Metropolitan Museum, and another one where a tarantula finds his way into the print shop where Archy types his poems, and how he torments Archy and his other friends Mehitabel the cat, Freddy the Rat and other sundry characters. Everyone should know about these poems! (P.S., there are multiple books that feature some or all of these works; I just happened to buy this one because it's complete and annotated). Have fun!
September 4, 2017
This was recommended to me by a friend on Twitter. It's a series of very old newspaper columns in which the gag is a poet died, was reincarnated as a cockroach, and writes poetry on a typewriter by throwing himself at the keys one at a time. It's cute, but some of the references are extremely dated. The columns were written around the time of "The Great War". It's somewhat surprising and impressive these hold up at all.
Some of the columns are amazing, most are not. The style, the gags, the fun of it is still there. The potency of it really comes from the idea that a cockroach has about as much to say as a person does. We are all bugs.
In this annotated version, there are explanations that are sometimes useful (the flyswater was invented in the early 1900s?!?). Sometimes they're not super helpful.
Because it was hit and miss, I can't really recommend it. But it was interesting.
Some of the columns are amazing, most are not. The style, the gags, the fun of it is still there. The potency of it really comes from the idea that a cockroach has about as much to say as a person does. We are all bugs.
In this annotated version, there are explanations that are sometimes useful (the flyswater was invented in the early 1900s?!?). Sometimes they're not super helpful.
Because it was hit and miss, I can't really recommend it. But it was interesting.
May 25, 2021
I don't remember how I discovered Archy for myself. It must have been college? Perhaps grad school, but certainly not in class. I absolutely, entirely, wholeheartedly enjoyed meeting Archy and the fabulous Mehitobel. The poems are funny, witty, at times tragic, sometimes campy: it's good stuff. I still quote this book in daily life: "wotthehell, wotthehell". I had a boyfriend once who asked me to read portions of it to him every night. It's fantastic for reading aloud.
It's also a good reflection of its time, with some great references to "current events." The character of Archy was an inspired idea and Mehitobel, nothing short of brilliant. Archy grousing at the owner of the typewriter upon which he so painstakingly types his poems is hilarious and Mehitobel feels like an Edith Piaf character from the Rue Pigalle.
It's also a good reflection of its time, with some great references to "current events." The character of Archy was an inspired idea and Mehitobel, nothing short of brilliant. Archy grousing at the owner of the typewriter upon which he so painstakingly types his poems is hilarious and Mehitobel feels like an Edith Piaf character from the Rue Pigalle.
March 8, 2008
All of the verse by Archy the typing cockroach, as well as the explanatory prose by his "boss," newspaperman Don Marquis of the 1910s-20s. It's good to have it all in one place, with explanatory notes at the back. Sometimes it's not clear why Michael Sims choose to write a note for something, and why he chose not to: a few period references are unexplained. And let's face it, Marquis doesn't offer the same rich opportunities for annotation that Carroll as illustrated by Tenniel does.
"well boss here/we are on the job again" and "i was talking to a moth/the other evening," both from 1922, are particularly fine.
"well boss here/we are on the job again" and "i was talking to a moth/the other evening," both from 1922, are particularly fine.
August 3, 2020
As a fan of arch and Mehitabel since I discovered a 1960 paperback edition of the first collection while in my teens, I had to have this collection on learning of it's existence. All the poems, in chronological order, with annotations in the back. It's missing the charming illustrations by George Herriman. Just a few of those, now and then, would have helped to break up and enliven the pages. Because of this, this comprehensive volume will not replace the other books in my collection.
Do I urge you to reach out for this particular text and get down in the gutter with the vers libre poet cockroach and the toujour gai alley cat? But, of course.
Do I urge you to reach out for this particular text and get down in the gutter with the vers libre poet cockroach and the toujour gai alley cat? But, of course.
January 15, 2015
Good book. Takes a small bit of getting used to the free-verse style and dated references (as you might expect for newspaper columns from the 1910s & '20s), but well-worth the effort. Many little gems in there, from a clever and witty writer. Quite a few columns sort of meander their way through a short story, and then an ending remark bursts forth in delightful & surprising manner to tie it all together, providing commentary on human foibles or political folly. Often found myself just smiling, and sometimes laughing.
September 5, 2007
A truly excellent book. Archy, the vers libre poet reincarnated as a cockroach, who uses columnist Don Marquis' typewriter to communicate with the world is an excellent character. These free verse lowercase poems typed out by a cockroach banging his head against the keys one at a time are clever, witty, and provide an excellent glimpse at NY during prohibition and World War I. This is a must read, particularly for anyone from Archy's home city of New York.
March 1, 2018
Toujours gai, Archy - toujours gai.
I remembered having a great fondness for Archy... but I think it was all for Mehitabel, really, with her raffish charm and her unrelenting optimism. You can picture her in laddered stockings, scuffed shoes, gown slipping off one shoulder, makeup applied too liberally for her age, and a drink forever in her hand ... bear in mind, she's a cat. But she is the soul of every big-hearted, world-weary coquette who clung on past her prime.
Wotthehell!
I remembered having a great fondness for Archy... but I think it was all for Mehitabel, really, with her raffish charm and her unrelenting optimism. You can picture her in laddered stockings, scuffed shoes, gown slipping off one shoulder, makeup applied too liberally for her age, and a drink forever in her hand ... bear in mind, she's a cat. But she is the soul of every big-hearted, world-weary coquette who clung on past her prime.
Wotthehell!
September 9, 2007
The most complete collection of Marquis' famous columns, placed in the order they were written. Yes, it's hard not to miss the Herriman drawings, but the writing itself and the great characters are as terrific as ever.
Want to read
October 25, 2007This would make an excellent christmas present! For me.
February 2, 2009
This book is a riot, but I think I need to read it again and again to appreciate all the complexities. This particular edition is very helpful with all the historical footnotes at the end.
Read
September 6, 2010"it is better to be happy
for a moment
and be burned up with beauty
than to live a long time
and be bored all the while" --Archy and Mehitabel
for a moment
and be burned up with beauty
than to live a long time
and be bored all the while" --Archy and Mehitabel
December 30, 2010
A wonderful commentary on the early 20th century. A cockroach types free verse at night on a typewriter. Read it.
August 23, 2012
As poetry, of course, it's awful. As comedy, it's hit and miss. When it hits, though!
"prohibition makes you
want to cry
into your beer and
denies you the beer
to cry into."
"prohibition makes you
want to cry
into your beer and
denies you the beer
to cry into."
October 31, 2013
The older I get, the more I love this free-verse cockroach poet. One of the few books I'd suggest to anyone.
September 28, 2019
A delight from start to finish and on through the notes. Loved it.
July 30, 2021
This is a favorite - one of those books I keep buying because I keep giving to other people. This was probably my fourth time through
Displaying 1 - 30 of 32 reviews