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

Benchley enlisted in the U.S. Navy prior to the attack on Pearl Harbor. and was transferred to the Pacific Theater in 1945.

Career

After the war Benchley worked for the weekly magazine Newsweek as an assistant drama editor. Harcourt, Brace published Benchley's first book in 1950, Side Street, a novel featuring "hilarious activities of two New York City families living in the East Sixties"—that is, living on the East Side of Manhattan, near the 60th Street.

He wrote a biography of his father Robert that McGraw-Hill published in 1955.

In 1960 Harper & Row published his second novel, Sail A Crooked Ship, and Random House his first children's book, retold from Sindbad the Sailor with illustrations by Tom O'Sullivan.

Benchley was the respected author of much children's fiction that provides readers an experience of certain animal species, historical settings, and so on (Oscar Otter, Sam The Minuteman, etc.). He presented diverse locales and topics: for instance, Bright Candles recounts the experiences of a 16-year-old Danish boy during the German occupation of Denmark in World War II; Small Wolf features 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.

Sail A Crooked Ship was adapted as a comedy feature movie of the same name by Columbia Pictures in 1961. His 1961 novel The Off-Islanders was made into comedy feature The Russians Are Coming, the Russians Are Coming by director/producer Norman Jewison in 1965. The Visitors (1965) was adapted as a horror/comedy feature The Spirit Is Willing by Paramount Pictures in 1967.<!-- source is one online bookseller ; contemporary reviews of the book clearly fit our one-line summary of the film --> In October 1975, ABC showed the made-for-television drama Sweet Hostage, based on Benchley's 1968 novel Welcome To Xanadu.

Benchley was a friend of the actor Humphrey Bogart and wrote a biography of Bogart published in 1975.

Personal life

Benchley and Margaret Bradford were married not long after his college years. They settled in New York City and had two sons, one before and one after World War II.-->

  • Red Fox and His Canoe (1964), illustrated by Arnold Lobel <!-- 62p -->
  • Oscar Otter (1966), illus. Lobel <!-- 64p -->
  • The Strange Disappearance of Arthur Cluck (1967), illus. Lobel <!-- I CAN READ mystery 64p -->
  • A Ghost Named Fred (1968), illus. Ben Shecter <!-- I CAN READ mystery 54p -->
  • Sam, the Minuteman (1969), illus. Lobel <!-- I CAN READ history 62p -->
  • The Several Tricks of Edgar Dolphin (1970), illus. Mamoru Funai <!-- 60p -->
  • Small Wolf (1972), illus. Joan Sandin <!-- I CAN READ history 64p -->
  • Snorri and the Strangers (1976), illus. Don Bolognese <!-- http://www.worldcat.org/oclc/2136969 I CAN READ history 59p -->
  • George, the Drummer Boy (1977), illus. Bolognese <!-- 61p -->
  • Running Owl the Hunter (1979), illus. Funai <!-- I CAN READ history 64p -->

References