Stork Thomas: Behind that whimsical nom de plume was John Irving Sowers, a man whose clever pen turned the commonplace into comedy and the ordinary into art. Hardcover – February 5, 2026

From the late nineteenth century through the early decades of the twentieth, his syndicated columns appeared in newspapers across America, where readers eagerly awaited his next playful skewering of human nature. Sowers had a gift: he could take the small absurdities of daily life—marriage squabbles, social fads, neighborly spats, or the dizzying march of modern inventions—and spin them into stories that were at once side-splittingly funny and startlingly wise. His wit was not the sharp blade of cruelty, but the quick sparkle of recognition. Readers laughed not just at his characters, but at themselves, for in every tale was the sly reflection of human folly that transcends time. Read more