Laughter's Gentle Soul: The Life of Robert Benchley

by Billy Altman

The definitive biography of Robert Benchley: humorist, actor, and leading man of the Algonquin Round Table. Few American writers have ever achieved the widespread acclaim and multidimensional popularity attained by Robert Benchley (1889-1945) during the first half of this century. A charter member, along with close friends Dorothy Parker, Robert Sherwood, and Harold Ross, of the Notorious "Vicious Circle" that held court at the Algonquin Hotel in the Roaring Twenties, Benchley was many things to many people: a best-selling author of hilarious books chronicling the comic futility of the human condition, a sharp-witted theater critic whose reviews graced the pages of the original Life and The New Yorker for nearly two decades, and a much sought-after radio personality and feature film actor who starred in his own series of classic comedy shorts. In this sympathetic and witty biography, Billy Altman explores the man behind the mirth as he chronicles Benchley's journey from the glittering lights of Broadway and the dim ones in the rollicking speakeasies of New York during prohibition, to the infamous Garden of Allah apartments and the glamorously decadent Hollywood of the 1930s and 1940s.

Genres: Biography, Humor

384 pages, Paperback

First published April 1, 1997

Reviews

[Rob Smith, Jr.]

This is a fantastic book that thoroughly tells the life of humorist Robert Benchley. Altman does a great job with research and cohesively piecing a lot of parts together to present this book.

One of the most obvious things about this book is that Altman read all he could about Benchley. To the point that a drawback is the nearly exact lifting of many parts of many books. There is much in this book that I'd already read from books about Benchley or include him. That might be considered bad, but in this case Altman does such a fine job weaving parts of many volumes of books, articles, songs, scripts, that it is impressive.

Reading this is almost like rereading Nathaniel Benchley's book about his grandfather. The big exception being that Altman carries a lot that Nathaniel wrote and builds upon it. One of the problems of Nathaniel's book is not telling whole stories in an obvious attempt to skirt around Robert's drinking and fidelity problems.

I do recommend reading Nathaniel's book before reading Altman's due how much both work to paint a portrait of Robert Benchley. I'm glad I read one before the other so that is really helped me see different ways of looking at such a creative genius.

Further praise to Altman for noting the years throughout, something many contemporary biographers do not do.

Bottom line: I recommend this book. 8 out of 10 points.

[Barb]

This book sat on my bookshelf among others from my deceased Aunt Macky's collection. I remember having seen some humorous movie shorts with Benchley which prompted some interest in his biography. The book is well-written and I found this telling of his life story interesting.

Benchley was one of the original Algonquin Round Table members back in the 1920's and worked for The New Yorker for many years, before getting into into the movie business which he hated. He started out as a tea-totaller and ended up dying of cirrhosis of the liver directly attributable to alcohol use. What a character, always the life of the party! I would have loved to have had dinner with him.

[Joe Kilmartin]

Like most really great biographies this manages to give you a great feeling of the personality of its subject while still whetting your appetite for more of the thing the subject was best known for. A great read - especially for those interested in old Hollywood or The Algonquin Round Table.