Bill Nye's History of the United States

Edgar Wilson "Bill" Nye was an eminent American journalist, who subsequently became known as a humorist. He was born in Shirley, Maine in 1850 and was educated at River Falls, Wisconsin. He moved to the Wyoming Territory, studied law, and was admitted to the bar in 1876.

He began contributing humorous sketches to newspapers, using the pen name "Bill Nye" after a character in a famous poem by Bret Harte. While he was postmaster of Laramie City, Wyoming Territory, Nye founded and edited the Laramie Boomerang. This would propel him to national fame as the paper garnered subscribers in every state and some foreign countries.

Some of his notable works include: Bill Nye's Comic History of the United States, Baled Hay, Remarks, Bill Nye and Boomerang, Bill Nye's History of England, and Bill Nye's Red Book.

Nye died of meningitis in Arden, North Carolina, in 1896. He was 45.

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