How to Tell Your Friends from the Apes (Transaction Large Print Books) [Large Print] [Hardcover]

Will Cuppy (Author)

Book Description

Series: Transaction Large Print Books | Publication Date: January 1, 1997

This collection of "delirious birds, beasts and all manner of funny critters from Man to Amoeba," with "pictures by Jack," is an irreverent and thoroughly unscientific study of mankind and his animal cousins.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Will Cuppy wrote a weekly column of reviews of mystery books for the New York Herald Tribune and various freelance journalism for other newspapers and magazines. His other books include The Decline & Fall of Practically Everybody, How to Get from January to December, and How to become Extinct. He died in 1949. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 174 pages
• Publisher: Transaction Large Print (January 1, 1997)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1560005319
• ISBN-13: 978-1560005315
• Product Dimensions: 9.4 x 6.7 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,268,723 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

18 of 18 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A masterpiece of very dry humor and amazing facts, June 10, 1999

By 

S. M. Struhl (Princeton, NJ United States) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: How to Tell Your Friends from the Apes (Transaction Large Print Books) (Hardcover)

Cuppy again produced another largely unheralded masterpiece with this book. His humor is extremely subtle in many places, which may explain some of this neglect. His method was to read everything, from the best known to the most obscure, then write an essay of about two pages. At his best, he can have you laughing again and again. Just consider the footnote that ends his very short essay on the Cro-Magnon Man: "Perhaps we of today are inclined to overestimate the intellectual powers of the Cro-Magnons, who lived at least 25,000 years ago. As some of my readers may recall, even so recently as twenty or thirty years ago people knew hardly anything. For earlier data one has but to glance at the family album."

What else can we add, except to note that he covers the other primates, various birds, fair to medium mammals and awful mammals?

This is one book not to miss.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Early Cuppy -- Better Than Most Other's Later Work, September 28, 2005

By 

Stephen A. Kallis, Jr. (Tampa, Florida) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: How to Tell Your Friends from the Apes (Transaction Large Print Books) (Hardcover)

Will Cuppy was an essayist who was witty, learned, and humorous. Nowadays, he's nearly forgotten, more's the pity. Cuppy conducted in-depth research in all his subjects, and then used the results to provide very humorous results.

This is onwe of his earliest works, and is well worth the read. He did other essays on naturalistic subjects, and all of them are amusing, some nearly 70 years after being written.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Revenge of the Bird Hater, April 8, 2009

By 

P. J. Sullivan (Northern California USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: How to Tell Your Friends from the Apes (Nonpareil Book) (Paperback)

This is a book of snippets about birds and monkeys, plus mammals and even a few primitive people. Cuppy was a notorious bird hater, so you can imagine how hilariously he deals with them. It must have done him good to write this one! This is certainly not his best book, but contains many quotable lines. For example, "All modern men are descended from a wormlike creature, but it shows more on some people." Or, "It is a good thing to keep out of the Arctic if you look like a seal." The illustrations are not as high quality as those of his other books, but are appropriately bizarre. With Cuppy you really can't go wrong. Another very funny book, but not recommended for oversensitive bird lovers.