© 2024 South Carolina Public Radio
Play Live Radio
Next Up:
0:00
0:00
0:00 0:00
Available On Air Stations

"Q" is for Quillen, Robert [1887-1948]

South Carolina from A to Z logo

"Q" is for Quillen, Robert [1887-1948]. Newspaper editor, syndicated columnist. For more than a quarter of a century, Quillen was one of America's best-known homespun philosophers. A Kansas native, he worked as a printer in several towns before settling down in Fountain Inn as editor and publisher of the Fountain Inn Tribune. He wrote two unsuccessful novels, but by 1920 his small town, "folksy" wit was appearing in major newspapers such as the Baltimore Sun. He signed a contract with a Chicago syndicate that teamed him up with a professional artist to produce "Folks Back Home." Among his best-known creations were "Willie Willis" and "Aunt Het." By the early 1930s Robert Quillen's syndicated editorials, letters, cartoons, and paragraphs—as well as much-loved pungent one-liners—appeared in 400 daily newspapers with more than twelve million readers.

Stay Connected
Dr. Walter Edgar has two programs on South Carolina Public Radio: Walter Edgar's Journal, and South Carolina from A to Z. Dr. Edgar received his B.A. degree from Davidson College in 1965 and his Ph.D. from the University of South Carolina in 1969. After two years in the army (including a tour of duty in Vietnam), he returned to USC as a post-doctoral fellow of the National Archives, assigned to the Papers of Henry Laurens.