Billings, Josh (1818-1885), was the pen name of Henry Wheeler Shaw, a popular American humorist. Billings specialized in humorous essays and aphorisms, which are short, clever statements of general truths. Billings expressed his humor in deliberately misspelled words and ungrammatical sentences, a technique popular among humorists of the time. However, Billings's language and images are fresh, original, and picturesque.

