Josh Billings was the pen name of Henry Wheeler Shaw, an American humourist born in Lanesborough, Massachusetts, in 1818. His father, Henry Shaw, served in the United States Congress. After leaving Hamilton College, Shaw travelled west and worked in several occupations before settling in Poughkeepsie, New York, in 1858. There he worked as an auctioneer and began contributing humorous pieces to newspapers.

Writing as Josh Billings, Shaw developed a distinctive style of short observations, comic advice and deliberately unconventional phonetic spelling. His work combined everyday experiences with satire and observations about human behaviour. His 1860 essay “Essa on the Muel bi Josh Billings” helped establish his reputation. Collections such as Josh Billings, Hiz Sayings (1866) and his annual Farmers’ Allminax reached a wide audience. He also toured as a public lecturer, becoming a familiar figure on the American lecture circuit alongside other nineteenth-century humourists. Shaw died in Monterey, California, in 1885.