Eighteenth-century eccentric Timothy Dexter of Newburyport, MA, self-described lord and philosopher, not only successfully sold mittens in the Caribbean and faked his own funeral, but also produced a literary curiosity entitled A Pickle for the Knowing Ones. After readers found its lack of punctuation somewhat vexing, subsequent editions included a page of punctuation so that they could “peper and solt it as they plese.”
Timothy Dexter, A Pickle for the Knowing Ones. 4th ed. Newburyport, MA: Blanchard & Sargent, 1848. Page 32. (George Peabody Library)
is this my future autobiography