Bunner was born on August 3, 1855, in
Oswego, New York, to Rudolph Bunner Jr. (1813–1875) and Ruth Keating Tuckerman (1821–1896) and was educated in
New York City. His paternal grandparents were
Rudolph Bunner (1779–1837) and Elizabeth Church (1783–1867), the daughter of
John Barker Church (1748–1818) and
Angelica Schuyler (1756–1814). From being a clerk in an importing house, he turned to journalism, and after some work as a reporter, and on the staff of the
Arcadian (1873), he became in 1877 assistant editor of the comic weekly
Puck. He soon assumed the editorship, which he held until his death. He developed
Puck from a new struggling periodical into a powerful social and political organ. published in 1884 and including one of his best known poems, "The Way to Arcady";
Rowen (1892), and
Poems (1896), edited by his friend
Brander Matthews and displaying a light play of imagination and a delicate workmanship. He also wrote clever
vers de société and parodies. One of his several plays (usually written in collaboration) was
The Tower of Babel (1883). His short story "Zenobia's Infidelity" was made into a feature film called
Zenobia starring
Oliver Hardy and
Harry Langdon by the
Hal Roach Studio in 1939. ==Personal life==