Editing Sam Slick (section)

'''Sam Slick''' is a character created in 1835 by [[Thomas Chandler Haliburton]], a [[Nova Scotian]] judge and author.  With his wry wit and [[Yankee]] voice, Sam Slick of Slicksville put forward  his views on "[[human nature]]" in a regular column in the ''[[Novascotian]]''. The twenty-one sketches were published in a collection entitled ''The Clockmaker or, also known as, the Sayings and Doings of Samuel Slick of Slicksville First Series'' in 1836 and supplemented by an additional 12 unpublished or new sketches.  The book was [[Canada]]'s first international bestseller and was hugely popular not only in [[Nova Scotia]], but also in [[United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland|Britain]] and the [[United States]].

Slick’s wise-cracking commentary on the [[Colonialism|colonial]] life of Nova Scotia and relations with the U.S. and Britain struck a note with readers, which led to a second series in 1838 and a third in 1840.  The [[satire|satirical]] sketches, mocking both Canadians and Americans, made Haliburton one of the most popular writers of comic fiction in English of that era.  ''The Clockmaker,'' which was also translated into [[German language|German]], established Haliburton as one of the founders of [[North America]]n [[humour]]. As Arthur Scobie notes in ''The [[Canadian Encyclopedia]]'', ''The Clockmaker'' stories, "proved immensely popular and, ironically, have influenced American humour as much as Canadian."<ref>{{cite encyclopedia |first=Stephen |last=Scobie |title=Humorous Writing in English |encyclopedia=[[The Canadian Encyclopedia]] |publisher=[[Historica Canada]] |edition=online |orig-year=February 7, 2006 |date=March 4, 2015 |url=https://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/humorous-writing-in-english}}</ref>