Benchley, anyone?

[Brian Sheridan]

Has anyone have recommendations for a good Robert Benchley book? I see one listed on Amazon that was edited by his son but some feedbackers says seek out other volumes.

I have read some of his stuff and it still seems very humorous. Do you think it hold up today?

 

[LizzieMaine]

I've been a Benchley fan since I was 14, and yes, I do think his pieces still hold up, because they satirize basic human nature -- which really hasn't changed much in the past 80 years.

Any of the latter-day "Best Of.." collections will give you a good, basic overview of his work -- but it's also fun to cruise the second-hand bookstores for the original collections published by Doubleday in the twenties, thirties, and forties. Most of the original Benchley anthologies had cartoon illustrations by Gluyas Williams -- which manage to perfectly visualize the spirit of the writing.

Also, keep an eye out on TCM for occasional airings of Benchley's MGM film shorts -- which are in the same general style as his essays.

 

[HadleyH]

Sure he holds up today.
Robert Benchley was another one of the many writers from NY who moved to Hollywood in the thirties, and he surely made his mark in the industry.
These are the books that I have about him: "Robert Benchley - A Biography by Nathaniel Benchley (this is the book that you mention). "Starring Robert Benchley -Those Magnificent Movie Shorts" by Robert Redding, this book also gives an insight into motion pictures at that time. And "Benchley Lost And Found" by RB himself ,full of illustrations by Peter Arno.
May be there are others, but this is all I've found about him.

 

[Parallel Guy]

Just finished My Ten Years in a Quandary. Light, reflective and stories short enough to be eaten like potato chips.

 

[Fletch]

A small paperback called Benchley Roundup brings together some of his early 1930s pieces for various magazines, with illos by Peter Arno among others. Some of his passing references are dated enough they may need explaining, but come back here and we'll help.