Ten Years In a Quandary

In my research into James Thurber I was struck that he wrote, “One of the greatest fears of the humorous writer is that he has spent three weeks writing something done faster and better by Benchley in 1919.”

or

”. . . plagued with the suspicion that a piece he has been working on for two days was done much better and probably more quickly by Robert Benchley in 1924.”

So, I thought I should look into Benchley. He falls into that rather large group of writers I’ve always heard about, but read very little of. So, I picked up his book My Ten Years In A Quandary and How They Grew. I can see exactly what Thurber was getting at.

In particular, find a small piece called “Spy Scare.” To me a moment to realize that he was writing about the US just after World War I, not today.

I seem to have known, but forgotten that Peter “Jaws” Benchley is his grandson.

See more progress on: write in my blog everyday