Nathaniel Benchley

Nathaniel Benchley
Nathaniel Benchley
Born November 13, 1915(1915-11-13)
Newton, Massachusetts United States
Died December 14, 1981(1981-12-14) (aged 66)
Boston, Massachusetts United States
Occupation Author, journalist, film writer, painter
Genres

Children's literature, humorous fiction, biography,

historical fiction
Spouse(s) Marjorie Bradford Benchley

Nathaniel Benchley (November 13, 1915 – December 14, 1981) was an American author.

Born in Newton, Massachusetts to a literary family, he was the son of Gertrude Darling and Robert Benchley (1889–1945), the noted American writer, humorist, critic, actor, and one of the founders of the Algonquin Round Table in New York City. He enlisted in the US Navy prior to the attack on Pearl Harbor[1] and served as a Public Relations Officer and on convoy duty in the Atlantic on destroyers and patrol craft.[2] He was transferred to the Pacific in 1945. He worked for Newsweek magazine as an assistant drama editor.

Writing career

Benchley was the highly-respected author of many children's/juvenile books that provided learning for the youthful readers with stories of various animals or through the book's historical settings. Benchley dealt with diverse locales and topics such as "Bright Candles", which recounts the experiences of a 16-year-old Danish boy during the German occupation of his country in World War II; and "Small Wolf", a story about a Native American boy who meets white men on the island of Manhattan and learns that their ideas about land are different from those of his own people.

He wrote a biography of his father Robert in 1955. His first novel Sail a Crooked Ship (1960) was filmed by Columbia Pictures in 1961. Film director/producer, Norman Jewison made Benchley's 1961 novel The Off-Islanders into a motion picture titled The Russians Are Coming, the Russians Are Coming for which he received the nomination for an Academy Award for Writing Adapted Screenplay. He was a close friend of actor Humphrey Bogart and wrote his biography in 1975.

Benchley's novel Welcome to Xanadu was made into the 1975 motion picture Sweet Hostage.

His elder son, Peter Benchley (1940–2006), was a writer best known for writing the novel Jaws and the screenplay of the 1975 Steven Spielberg film made from it. His younger son, Nat Benchley, is a writer and actor who has portrayed his grandfather, Robert Benchley, in a one-man, semi-biographical stage show, "Benchley Despite Himself". The show was a compilation of Robert Benchley's best monologues, short films, radio rantings and pithy pieces as recalled, edited, and acted by his grandson Nat, and combined with family reminiscences and friends' perspectives."

Nathaniel Benchley died in 1981 in Boston, Massachusetts and was interred in the family plot at Prospect Hill Cemetery in Nantucket.

Partial bibliography, children/juvenile books:

  • Sinbad the Sailor (1960)
  • Red Fox and His Canoe (1964)
  • Oscar Otter (1966)
  • The Strange Disappearance of Arthur Cluck (1967)
  • Ghost Named Fred (1968)
  • Sam the Minuteman (1969)
  • The Several Tricks of Edgar Dolphin (1970)
  • Feldman Fieldmouse: A Fable (1971)
  • The Magic Sled (1972)
  • Small Wolf (1972)
  • Only Earth and Sky Last Forever (1972)
  • The Deep Dives of Stanley Whale (1973)
  • Bright Candles: A Novel of the Danish Resistance (1974)
  • Beyond the Mists (1975)
  • Snorri and the Strangers (1976)
  • Kilroy and the Gull (1977)
  • George the Drummer Boy (1977)
  • Running Owl the Hunter (1979)
  • Walter, the Homing Pigeon (1981)
  • Welcome to Xanadu (1968)

Partial bibliography, novels (unless otherwise noted):

  • Robert Benchley: A Biography(1955)
  • Sail a Crooked Ship (1960)
  • The Off-Islanders (1961)
  • Catch a Falling Spy (1964)
  • A Winter's Tale (1964)
  • The Visitors (1965)
  • The Monument (1966)
  • Welcome to Xanadu (1968)
  • The Wake of the Icarus (1969)
  • Lassiter's Folly (1971)
  • A Necessary End: A Novel of World War II (1976)
  • Sweet Anarchy (1979)
  • Portrait of a Scoundrel (1979)
  • All Over Again (1981)
  • Speakeasy (1982)

Partial bibliography, short stories:

  • "Short cut" The New Yorker 25/49 (28 January 1950) : 26-29

References

  1. ^ http://www.harpercollins.com/authors/11795/Nathaniel_Benchley/index.aspx
  2. ^ p.56 Silvey, Anita Children's Books and Their Creators Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 1995

External links


Wikimedia Foundation. 2010.

Игры ⚽ Нужна курсовая?

Look at other dictionaries:

  • Benchley — is a surname, and may refer to:* Henry Wetherby Benchley (1822 1867), American politician * Nat Benchley (21st century), American actor * Nathaniel Benchley (1915 1981), American author * Peter Benchley (1940 2006), American author * Robert… …   Wikipedia

  • Benchley — ist der Nachname folgender Personen: Nathaniel Benchley (1915–1981), US amerikanischer Autor Peter Benchley (1940–2006), US amerikanischer Autor Robert Benchley (1889–1945), US amerikanischer Humorist, Theaterkritiker und Schauspieler Benchley… …   Deutsch Wikipedia

  • Benchley, Robert — ▪ American actor and writer in full  Robert Charles Benchley  born September 15, 1889, Worcester, Massachusetts, U.S. died November 21, 1945, New York, New York  American humorist, actor, and drama critic, whose main persona, that of a slightly… …   Universalium

  • Benchley — Cette page d’homonymie répertorie les différents sujets et articles partageant un même nom. Benchley est un patronyme pouvant désigner: Henry Wetherby Benchley (1822 1867), politicien américain Nat Benchley, acteur américain Nathaniel Benchley… …   Wikipédia en Français

  • Nathaniel P. Banks — Nathaniel Prentice Banks 25th Speaker of the United States House of Representatives In office February 2, 1856 – March 4, 1857 Preceded by …   Wikipedia

  • Robert Benchley — Infobox Writer name = Robert Benchley caption = Robert Benchley imagesize = 250px caption = Benchley photographed for Vanity Fair (magazine) birthdate = birth date|mf=yes|1889|9|15|mf=y birthplace = Worcester, Massachusetts, United States… …   Wikipedia

  • Robert Benchley — Robert Benchley, um 1935 Robert Charles Benchley (* 15. September 1889 in Worcester, Massachusetts; † 21. November 1945 in New York City, New York) war ein US amerikanischer Humorist, Theaterkritiker und …   Deutsch Wikipedia

  • Peter Benchley — Infobox Celebrity name = Peter Benchley caption = Benchley being interviewed about Jaws birth date =birth date|1940|5|8|mf=y birth place = New York City death date = death date and age |2006|2|11|1940|5|8 death place = occupation = Author salary …   Wikipedia

  • Les Dents de la mer (adaptation du roman de Peter Benchley au cinéma) — Adaptation cinématographique des Dents de la mer Paru en février 1974, le roman Jaws de Peter Benchley, sera vendu à plus de 9,5 millions d exemplaires aux États Unis et 20 dans le monde, en faisant un des plus importants best sellers de ces… …   Wikipédia en Français

  • Peter Benchley — Peter Bradford Benchley (* 8. Mai 1940 in New York; † 11. Februar 2006 in Princeton, New Jersey) war ein US amerikanischer Autor. Inhaltsverzeichnis 1 Leben 2 Auszeichnungen 3 Werke (Auswahl) …   Deutsch Wikipedia

Share the article and excerpts

Direct link
Do a right-click on the link above
and select “Copy Link”