Saturday, June 29, 2013

From the Mailbag

Recently someone contacted the Robert Benchley Society to ask:
Can you please tell me the date that Mr. Benchley first used the quote
"there are two kinds of people in the world.."
I am writing a paper for school and need the date, at least the year, of the original quote.

Thank you very much for your assistance.

Thank you for contacting the Robert Benchley Society.

The quotation is: "There may be said to be two classes of people in the world; those who constantly divide the people of the world into two classes, and those who do not."

In is from his essay "The Most Popular Book of the Month," which is a literary review of the New York Telephone Directory as if it were a novel.

The essay also contains the hilarious line: "But it is the opinion of the present reviewer that the weakness of plot is due to the great number of characters which clutter up the pages. The Russian school is responsible for this."

It appears in the first book of Mr. Benchley's collected writings, titled, "Of All Things" and published in 1921.

David Trumbull

Friday, June 14, 2013

The Benchley Roundup One of 50 Great Books That Will Change Your Life

"Benchley taught me how to create and then mine a comedic worldview with details gleaned from everything all around me," writes humorist Merrill Markoe in the June issue of Real Simple magazine. Her comments on Benchley's influence on her career in humor are also available online at http://www.realsimple.com/work-life/entertainment/great-books-00100000101474/page8.html

Thursday, June 6, 2013

Join the Boston Chapter for Cocktails on the 20th

The Boston "We've Come for the Davenport" Chapter of the Robert Benchley Society will meet for cocktails Thursday, June 20th, at 5:30 p.m. at the Downtown Harvard Club, One Federal Street.

Robert Benchley Society

For more information about the Robert Benchley Society, local chapters near you, our annual Award for Humor, and our Annual Gathering, visit The RBS Website