Bill Nye papers, 1878-circa 1973

Edgar Wilson Nye was the founder and first editor of the Laramie Boomerang, a newspaper reputedly named after Nye’s mule. His humorous columns for the paper achieved national recognition, and he went on to become a nationally-known lecturer and author under the pen name Bill Nye. He was born in Shirley, Maine, on August 25, 1850, and came to Laramie, Wyoming, in 1876. He was initially employed by J.H. Hayford on the Laramie Sentinel but supplemented his income by writing for other papers as well, including the Denver Tribune, where he came to the attention of Eugene Field. In 1877 he married Fannie Smith and in 1881 began publication of the Boomerang. The newspaper was successful, and Nye soon began to publish books based on his humorous observations. Nye, however, became ill and sold his Laramie interests in 1883. He returned to his former home in Wisconsin where he continued to write. He later settled in North Carolina. He traveled widely in the 1880s and 1890s as a lecturer, often in partnership with James Whitcomb Riley, under the management of James B. Pond. His health, however, remained poor, and he died in 1896 at the age of forty-six.