Peck's Bad Boy

Henry "Hennery" Peck, popularly known as Peck's Bad Boy, is a fictional character created by George Wilbur Peck (1840–1916).^[1] First appearing in the 1883 novel Peck's Bad Boy and His Pa, the Bad Boy has appeared in numerous print, stage, and film adaptations. The character is portrayed as a mischievous prankster, and the phrase "Peck's bad boy" has entered the language to refer to anyone whose mischievous or bad behavior leads to annoyance or embarrassment.^[2] Described as "a vicious little swaggerer" and "no more than a callous brute",^[3] Hennery's antics were more mean-spirited than those of earlier boyhood characters like Huckleberry Finn,^[4] and modern criticism views the violence and racism in the original stories as objectionable or politically incorrect.^[5][6] The inspiration for Hennery—the Bad Boy—came from Edward James Watson, who was a telegraph messenger boy that Peck met in the early 1880s. Apparently Watson thought up many of the stories used by Peck. Mr Watson had in his possession a letter from Peck "To my friend E. J. Watson, who, as a boy, gave me the first idea that culminated in the Peck's Bad Boy Series".

Jackie Coogan as the Bad Boy in the 1921 film

Hennery gets kicked out of a drug store (art by True Williams)

Books

• Peck's Bad Boy and His Pa (1883)
• The Grocery Man and Peck's Bad Boy (1883)
• Peck's Bad Boy Abroad (1905)
• The Adventures of Peck's Bad Boy (1906)
• Peck's Bad Boy with the Circus (1906)
• Peck's Bad Boy with the Cowboys (1908)
• Peck's Bad Boy in an Airship (1908)

Films

• The Bad Boy and the Groceryman (1905)
• Peck's Bad Boy (1908)^[7]
• Peck's Bad Boy (1921)
• Peck's Bad Boy (1934)
• Peck's Bad Boy with the Circus (1938)
• A scene from the stage version of Peck's Bad Boy is featured in the 1942 film Yankee Doodle Dandy showing Douglas Croft as a teenage George M. Cohan in the title role.

Stage

• Peck's Bad Boy (1884) by Charles Felton Pidgin

See also

• Peck's Bad Girl, 1918 film, written by Tex Charwate
• Peck's Bad Girl (TV series), 1959 television show, unrelated to the movie