The Best Humor From Punch

edited by William Cole and illustrated by G. N. Sprod.World, $3.50.

In a pleasant introduction which describes the career of Punch and does not try to define humor, Mr. Cole points out that “Through one hundred and twelve years of oversight, there has never been an anthology of Punch prose and verse published in America.” The discomforts of everyday life — crowded railway carriages, shopping difficulties, and such — are a fertile source of material to the British humorist. Some of this humor, transplanted, sounds pretty weak or just so-so, but the best pieces are really choice stuff, and the best is in sufficient supply to make this a splendid anthology. Most of the verse is entrancing; and Punch’s contributors include some maestros in the delightful art of the spoof or parody, a form sadly neglected on this side of the Atlantic.