George William Bagby
1828=1883.
Dr. Bagby was born in Buckingham County, Virginia, and educated at Edge Hill, New Jersey, and the University of Pennsylvania. He took his degree in the study of medicine, and made his residence in Richmond. He was correspondent for several papers, wrote some very witty letters under the pen-name of “Mozis Addums,” and made a reputation as a humorous lecturer. From 1859 to 1862 he was editor of the “Southern Literary Messenger,” ably succeeding John R. Thompson in that position: and from 1870 to 1878 he was State Librarian of Virginia.
His writings are not only witty but wise as well, and give many interesting aspects of Southern life and manners. A selection from them has been published by Mrs. Bagby, under the title “Writings of Dr. Bagby” (1884-6). Among them are: My Uncle Flatback’s Plantation, Meekins’s Twinses, Jud. Brownin’s Account of Rubinstein’s Playing, Bacon and Greens, or the True Virginian, What I Did with my Fifty Millions, [a sort of Utopian Prophecy.]