Irvin S. Cobb (1876-1944) was an American author, humorist, and columnist who lived in New York and authored more than 60 books and 300 short stories. He started in journalism on the Paducah Daily News at age seventeen, and became the nation's youngest managing news editor at nineteen. Cobb covered World War I for the Saturday Evening Post. In Hollywood he had success both as a writer and as an actor. Cobb is best remembered for his humorous stories of Kentucky local color. In A Plea For Old Cap Collier Cobb makes an argument for young people reading dime novels. He says that the dime novel is no worse than the stilted writing found in most school literature books.