List of Robert Benchley collections and film appearances

Humorist Robert Benchley (1889–1945) produced over 600 essays,[1] initially compiled in over twelve volumes, during his writing career.[2] He was also featured in a number of films, including 48 short treatments that he mostly wrote or co-wrote, and numerous feature films.[3]

Robert Benchley The Woolen Mitten Situation (1926)

The following is a list of those compilations and appearances.

Books

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Benchley produced twelve compilation books of his work for the various publications he wrote and freelanced for, and numerous posthumous compilations of his work have been produced since his death. Unless otherwise indicated, all volumes featuring illustrations were drawn by Gluyas Williams.[4]

Collections During His Lifetime

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Book Prefaces, Introductions, and Forewords

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  • Ellison Hoover Cartoons From Life - Simon & Schuster, 1925.
  • Justin Stafford Lucien Esty Ask Me Another! The Question Book - Viking Press, 1927.
  • Gluyas Williams The Gluyas Williams Book - Doubleday, Doran, 1929.
  • Peter Arno Peter Arno's Hullabaloo - Horace Liveright, 1930.
  • The Fourth New Yorker Album - Doubleday, Doran, 1931.
  • Dwight Fiske (and Dawn Powell) Without Music - The Chatham Press, 1933.
  • S. J. Perelman Strictly From Hunger - Random House, 1937.
  • Gluyas Williams Fellow Citizens - Doubleday, Doran, 1940.
  • Morton Thompson Joe, The Wounded Tennis Player - Doubleday, Doran, 1945.

Posthumous

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  • Benchley--Or Else - Harper and Brothers, 1947. 273p - 71 essays, six of which were originally published in The New Yorker.[4]
  • Chips off the Old Benchley - Harper and Brothers, 1949. 360p. - Collection of 77 essays compiled by Gertrude Benchley, Robert's wife. Many of the illustrations were previously unpublished in book form.[4]
  • The "Reel" Benchley - A. A. Wyn, Inc., 1950. 96p - No Williams illustrations, instead consisting of stills and scripts from many of Benchley's short films.[4]
  • The Benchley Roundup - Harper and Brothers, 1954. 288p- A collection of essays, written between 1915 and 1945, edited by Nathaniel Benchley
  • Benchley Lost and Found: Thirty-Nine Prodigal Pieces - Dover Publications, 1970. 183p.
  • The Benchley Omnibus - University of Chicago Press, 1983. 353p - Edited by Nathaniel Benchley.
  • The Best of Robert Benchley - Avenel Books, 1983. 353p.
  • Benchley at the Theatre: Dramatic Criticism, 1920-1940 by Robert Benchley - Ipswich Press, 1985. - Edited by Charles Getchell, the volume contains 84 of Benchley's theatrical reviews written for Life and The New Yorker over his career.[4]
  • Robert Benchley's Wayward Press: The Complete Collection of his The New Yorker Columns written as Guy Fawkes (S.L. Harrison, ed.) - Wolf Den Books, 2008. 341p - Collection of all Wayward Press columns, with a Prologue by Nat Benchley.
  • The Athletic Benchley-105 Exercises from The Detroit Athletic Club News - Glendower Media, 2010. ISBN 978-0914303022

Film and television

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Benchley filmed for Fox Film Corporation, Universal Pictures, RKO Radio Pictures, and then primarily for Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer and Paramount Pictures. Toward the end of his career, he did freelance acting around Hollywood. The films are listed by release date, not by production date.

Short films

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Feature films

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Television

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  • Light's Diamond Jubilee (1954) TV special broadcast on all 4 TV networks, archive footage (from How to Raise a Baby)

Further reading

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  • Gordon Ernst, Robert Benchley: An Annotated Bibliography. (Greenwood Press, 1995).

Works cited

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References

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  1. ^ Yates, 58-59.
  2. ^ Altman, 363.
  3. ^ Altman, 364-367.
  4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n The Robert Benchley Society.
  5. ^ Altman, 295-298.
  6. ^ Altman, 321–325.
  7. ^ Nat Benchley.
  8. ^ a b Altman, 327-328.
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