Peck's Bad Boy

Peck's Bad Boy
Jackie Coogan as the Bad Boy in the 1921 film
First appearancePeck's Bad Boy and His Pa (1883)
Created byGeorge Wilbur Peck

Henry "Hennery" Peck, popularly known as Peck's Bad Boy, is a fictional character created by George Wilbur Peck (1840–1916).[1] First appearing in the 1883 novel Peck's Bad Boy and His Pa, the Bad Boy has appeared in numerous print, stage, and film adaptations. The character is portrayed as a mischievous prankster, and the phrase "Peck's bad boy" has entered the language to refer to anyone whose mischievous or bad behavior leads to annoyance or embarrassment.[2] Described as "a vicious little swaggerer" and "no more than a callous brute",[3] Hennery's antics were more mean-spirited than those of earlier boyhood characters like Huckleberry Finn,[4] and modern criticism views the violence and racism in the original stories as objectionable or politically incorrect.[5][6] The inspiration for Hennery—the Bad Boy—came from Edward James Watson, who was a telegraph messenger boy that Peck met in the early 1880s. Apparently Watson thought up many of the stories used by Peck. Mr Watson had in his possession a letter from Peck "To my friend E. J. Watson, who, as a boy, gave me the first idea that culminated in the Peck's Bad Boy Series".

Books

  • Peck's Bad Boy and His Pa (1883)
  • The Grocery Man and Peck's Bad Boy (1883)
  • Peck's Bad Boy Abroad (1905)
  • The Adventures of Peck's Bad Boy (1906)
  • Peck's Bad Boy with the Circus (1906)
  • Peck's Bad Boy with the Cowboys (1908)
  • Peck's Bad Boy in an Airship (1908)

Films

Stage

See also

References

  1. ^ Roberts, James P. (2002). "George Wilbur Peck". Famous Wisconsin Authors. Badger Books Inc. pp. 73–77. ISBN 978-1-878569-85-1.
  2. ^ Elizabeth Webber; Mike Feinsilber (1999). Merriam-Webster's Dictionary of Allusions. Merriam-Webster. pp. 410. ISBN 978-0-87779-628-2.
  3. ^ Roller, Bert (1931). "The "Bad Boy" in American Literature". Peabody Journal of Education. 8 (5): 291–296. doi:10.1080/01619563109535021. JSTOR 1488396.
  4. ^ Pease, Donald E. (1994). Revisionary Interventions Into the Americanist Canon. Duke University Press. p. 148. ISBN 0-8223-1493-2.
  5. ^ Greasley, Philip A. (2001). "George (W)ilbur Peck". Dictionary of Midwestern Literature, Volume 1: The Authors. Indiana University Press. pp. 406–407. ISBN 0-253-10841-1.
  6. ^ Burt, Daniel S. (2004). The Chronology of American Literature: America's Literary Achievements from the Colonial Era to Modern Times. Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. p. 265. ISBN 0-618-16821-4.
  7. ^ "Peck's Bad Boy movies- lesser known". georgewpeck.com. Retrieved 23 March 2018.


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