Foreword
ONE time， during the recent war， an Air Force sergeant accosted
Robert Benchley in a bar and， with little or no preamble， said， \"I
might as well tell you that I don t like your work.\" Benchley re-
plied that he had moments of doubt himself， and the sergeant then
explained that he had hitched a ride from Africa to Italy on a cargo
plane， and that the only available sleeping space had been on bags
that were full of overseas editions of Benehley s books. By the time
they passed Sicily， the man said， he was so stiff and sore that he
hoped never to hear the name Benchley again. \"Try it yourself
sometime，\" he concluded. \"That stuff isn t funny when you have to
sleep on it.\"
In somewhat the same way， I would suggest that The Benchley
Roundup be read piecemeal rather than in one lump---picked up
and put down as though you were waiting for a telephone call， or
for guests to arrivebbecause， after all， the pieces had their original
appeal as separate entities. In making my selection from about a
thousand previously published pieces， I read in fits and starts over
a long period of time.
Many people have tried to analyze Robert Benchley s particular
form of humor， and I would be the last one to add my tiny voice
to that of the throng， because I don t think it can be analyzed. It is
sometimes mad， sometimes penetrating， and sometimes based on
nothing more than word associations， and the only generalization
that can be made with any degree of certainty is that it is different--
or， ff you will， unique.
So let s just leave it that the humorous pieces colleeted here，
written between 1915 and 1945， are those which seem to stand up
best over the years. There were some that were much admired
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