The Columbia Encyclopedia, Sixth Edition. 2001-07.
Nash, Ogden
190271, American poet, b. Rye, N.Y., studied at Harvard. He was popular for a wide assortment of witty and immensely quotable doggerel verses, ranging from urbane satire to absurdity in their subject and rhyme. For several decades his work appeared regularly in The New Yorker magazine. Nash also wrote plays, e.g., One Touch of Venus (1943) in collaboration with Kurt Weill and S. J. Perelman, and childrens books. His collections include Hard Lines (1931), Im a Stranger Here Myself (1938), Selected Verse (1946), Versus (1949), The Private Dining Room (1953), You Cant Get There from Here (1957), Verses from 1929 On (1959), Everyone but Thee and Me (1962), and Bed Riddance (1970).