In "The Man of Letters as a Man of Business," which we'll be reading in a few weeks in my Literature & Business course, William Dean Howells writes:

Perhaps, then, and as a matter of business, it would be well for a serious author, when he finds that he is not pleasing the women, and probably never will please them, to turn humorous author, and aim at the countenance of the men. Except as a humorist he certainly never will get it, for your American, when he is not making money, or trying to do it, is making a joke, or trying to do it.

I wonder if he had Al Swearengen in mind. There is, of course, a link, but I'm too tired to flesh it out at this point. Too much course planning -- syllabus mapping, etc., etc.