Dave Barry Is Not Making This Up

DAVE Barry was described in as “the funniest man in America,” a claim he has been quick to disavow, except for the plaque on the front door. Nevertheless, the reviewer got there late: The Pulitzer Prize Committee had cited him for commentary earlier in 1988, and he got off with an appropriately light sentence (Even earlier, in 1986, he won the Distinguished Writing Award of the American Association of Newspaper Editors, but what do they know?). Apart from these facts—which, as Mr. Barry occasionally Puts it—we are not making up, the relevant details seem to be that he writes for and is syndicated in approximately 150 other newspapers, several of which make money despite this.

Barry lives with his wife, Beth, and son, Robby, in a Coral Gables, Florida, house surrounded by giant mutant spiders.

“Brilliant ... Barry not only changes the face of American history, he practically has to be restrained from taking up hammer and chisel to change the faces on Mount Rushmore as well.”—Associated Press

“If you like to have fun with American history, here’s your chance. Dave Barry Slept Here is a zany, delightful twisting of just about everything important in America’s past.”—St. Louis Post Dispatch

“A delight from the top of his introduction to the tip of his last outrageous footnote.”—Minneapolis Star Tribune

“Impressive ... Genuinely fresh insight ... Dave Barry Slept Here might be the rallying point for reformers determined to restore rigor and bite to the public school curriculum.”—Greensboro News and Record

“I wish I would have taken Dave Barry’s history class in high school instead of the one I did. Instead of getting in trouble for writing all over the desk, I would have been excused for an upset stomach from laughing so hard. And I would still be laughing now, years later.”—Grand Rapids Press

“All the history you’ll ever need to know.”—Tampa Tribune-Times

This Guy Has Also Written

Dave Barry Turns 40

Dave Barry’s Greatest Hits

Homes and Other Black Holes

Bad Habits

The Taming of the Screw

Stay Fit and Healthy Until You’re Dead

Claw Your Way to the Top

Dave Barry’s Guide to Marriage and/or Sex

Babies and Other Hazards of Sex

Dave Barry is the author of Babies , and . He received the Pulitzer Prize for Commentary for his syndicated column. He lives in Coral Gables, Florida, with his family.

“READ ‘EM AND LAUGH ...”

“If there’s one thing you can count on from Dave Barry, it’s extreme humor. Non-stop yuks.”—

“Dave Barry is the only living writer who makes me laugh out loud, something he accomplished on virtually every page of his latest collection of craziness—from the introduction to the final page.”—

“Have you ever had a vacation where you didn’t lose the car keys or traveler’s checks, get a seat on the plane next to a crying baby or airsick adult or end up divorced without ever going near Nevada? If so, you probably wouldn’t understand what’s so funny about . The rest of us, however, would.”—

“For good old belly laughs and delightful play with cliches of the language, there’s .”—

Dave Barry is a Pulitzer Prize-winning syndicated columnist at the Miami Herald. His books include , and , among others.

Dave Barry is a staff writer for the Miami Herald, where he writes about such topics as politics, world affairs, and giant mutant crickets attacking villages in Peru. His weekly humor column appears in more than 120 newspapers, and his writing has appeared in a number of national magazines. In 1986 he won the American Association of Newspaper Editors’ Distinguished Writing Award for commentary. In 1988 he won the Pulitzer Prize for commentary, an event that confirmed the widely held view that western civilization is headed down the toilet.

Barry lives with his wife, Beth, and son, Robby, in Coral Gables, Florida, in a house that is slowly getting worse.