Laughter's Gentle Soul: The Life of Robert Benchley
While he lived, Robert Benchley was a household name--writer, actor, critic,  and wit, Benchley was lionized in the pages of theNew Yorker, Vanity Fair,and  theNew York Tribuneand appeared in countless Hollywood films, some of  which he wrote himself. Fifty years after his death, Benchley has become something of a  footnote to the likes of  Dorothy Parker, Alexander Wollcott, and other luminaries of the  Algonquin Hotel Round Table. Most of Benchley's books are out of print, as are the two  previous biographies about him. Thus, Billy Altman'sLaughter's Gentle Soulcomes at a good time to reawaken interest in this forgotten funnyman.Altman's biography chronicles Benchley's life from his birth in Worcester,  Massachusetts, his schooling at Harvard, and early writing career in New York through  the heady days of Hollywood and the Algonquin Hotel to his untimely death from  cirrhosis in 1945. The stories are all here: Benchley's practical jokes, his legendary  drinking, his strict separation of suburban family life and urban adultery. What is not inLaughter's Gentle Soulis any critical analysis of the stories, the writing, or the  reasons for Benchley's self-destruction. Why, for example, was Benchley so admired by  fellow humorists? Why did he not drink until the age of 31 and then apparently fall  immediately into incurable alcoholism? Fans of Robert Benchley won't find anything inLaughter's Gentle Soulthat they haven't read before; for those who are unfamiliar  with the man, however, Altman's book provides a good first introduction.