Rudolph Edgar Block

Rudolph Edgar Block (December 6, 1870 – April 29, 1940) was a Jewish American journalist, columnist, and author. Much of his writing was done under the pen name of Bruno Lessing. and helped to create such popular series as Happy Hooligan and The Katzenjammer Kids. Between 1905 and 1909, many of these tales were published by Cosmopolitan, which at that time was a literary magazine. During the years 1915 – 1916 he also wrote a number of screenplays depicting the Jewish American experience.

Ambrose Bierce, another frequent contributor to Cosmopolitan, mentioned Block in his satirical work The Devil's Dictionary, recounting the author's alleged encounter with a prominent critic. A short poem by Bierce, titled "Rudolph Block", had no apparent connection to the man himself.

An avid traveler, Block wrote about his experiences in the daily newspaper column "Vagabondia", which was published from 1928 through 1939. Along the way he amassed a collection of 1,400 walking sticks, although he himself walked unaided. After his death, the collection of canes, each made from a unique type of wood, was donated to Yale University.

Selected works 1903 Children of Men 1909 Jake or Sam 1914 With the Best Intention