Peck’s Compendium of Fun: Comprising The Choicest Gems of Wit, Humor, Sarcasm and Pathos, by George W. Peck. Chicago. 1886.
This book is full of jokes and anecdotes from the creator of Peck’s Bad Boy.
Many of the jokes are dated, and have a distinct Midwestern-American twang, but there are some that are still relevant.
Journalist, newspaper editor, mayor of Milwaukee, and later Governor of Wisconsin, George W. Peck (1840-1916) introduced “Peck’s Bad Boy” to the American idiom through stories of a mischievous boy.
The stories were so popular that a play and two movies were created based on the characters. Peck’s Bad Boy may also have been the inspiration for Hank Ketcham’s Dennis the Menace.
“Peck’s bad boy” is still sometimes used to refer to a person who is constantly annoying others by bad or mischievous behavior.