Finding a career in print
Henry Cuyler Bunner was born in Oswego, New York, on 3 August 1855, the son of Rudolph Bunner and Ruth Tuckerman. He grew up chiefly in and around New York City. Although prepared for Columbia College, he did not enroll; family financial difficulties helped turn him toward employment instead. After a brief period in an importing firm, he began writing for newspapers and the short-lived Arcadian.
In 1877 he joined the new English-language edition of Puck as an assistant editor and soon became its editor. He remained with the paper until his death. His responsibilities extended beyond editorials: he supplied stories, comic verse, captions and other material, while working closely with the artists and publishers who shaped the illustrated weekly.
Brander Matthews, his friend and collaborator, remembered the early Puck office as a bare loft shared by artists and editors. He credited the paper’s success to Joseph Keppler’s caricature, the publisher’s business judgement and Bunner’s ability to supply varied material. Bunner’s editorship was part of that collaboration.
Fiction, poetry and the city
Bunner’s books developed alongside his newspaper work. Airs from Arcady and Elsewhere appeared in 1884, while Rowen followed in 1892. His verse included parody and light social poetry, forms that depended on recognising a voice or convention and giving it a new turn. Matthews admired this ability to enter another writer’s manner without merely copying its surface.
