VEST POCKET ESSAYS by George Fitch Rare 1916 First Edition

Commentaries on every day life in the early 1900s

by George Fitch 1916 First Edition

George Helgesen Fitch ( June 5, 1877 – August 9, 1915 ) was an American author, humorist, and journalist perhaps best known for his stories about fictional Siwash College.

Fitch graduated from Knox College in 1897.  He worked as a reporter for a number of midwest newspapers including the Council Bluffs, Iowa Daily Nonpareil and the Peoria, Illinois Herald-Transcript.  Eventually he became frequently published in national magazines, breaking in with his popular "Megaphone" series satirizing urban America.  He also penned a syndicated column called "Vest Pocket Essays".  By 1910, Fitch not only was a respected writer and editor, he became a nationally syndicated columnist for George Matthew Adams' news service. 

Knox, his alma mater, was the basis of a series of popular stories set at "Good Old Siwash College".  First appearing in the Saturday Evening Post in 1908, they focused on characters including football player Ole Skjarson and Petey Simmons, a coach who paid his "amateur" athletes as well as the fraternity Eta Bita Pie.  The Siwash stories were the basis for the movie Those Were the Days! (1940) starring William Holden as Simmons, which was filmed on location at and around Knox College. Fitch died of a ruptured appendix while visiting his sister Louise in California at the age of 38.