Puck Magazine & Jospeh Keppler: Kings of Satire Named for the
mischievous fairy in Shakespeare’s“Mid-Summer Night’s Dream,”
Puck Magazine was the brainchild of German political cartoonist,
Joseph Keppler. He founded it in 1876 to poke fun at the
political classes. For the first year, it was only published in
German, which gives you an idea of how many Germans lived in New
York City. Out of a total population of 1.5 million in 1890,
more than 400,000 people were either born in Germany or came
from at least one German parent. Puck was an instant hit in
German, and the next year it came out in English as well. By
1885, circulation had reached close 100,000 (about 6.6% of the
city population), and Kepler’s cartoons were the talk of the
town. This style of political satire was entirely new in America
and represented a degree of sophistication imported from Europe
– along with its readers. The Puck Building lies along our tour
of Little Italy, standing on the corner of Houston and
Lafayette. In 1917, the magazine m