Of the three most prominent popular humorists of the middle of the last century (Benchley, Thurber and Perelman) I have always enjoyed Benchley the most. Less intellectual and less wide-ranging than Perelman, yes, and not considered as great as Thurber, yes, still, his short pieces on the foibles of his slightly bumbling everyman persona are always genial and often terrifically funny. I fear that my own generation (I was born in the mid 50s) will be last with just enough cultural memory (through our parents and grandparents) of Benchley's world of telegrams, dress collars, and dining cars to enjoy his topical humor. Pity. His short pieces, of course, have a certain predictable structure and no aggregate overall shape in an anthology, and are therefore best read in fairly small doses. The present selection has several very funny pieces, but a number that are more routine, It is called a "Best of" yet contains no items that I remember, and none that appear in the four Benchley books on my shelf. the editing is sloppy with numerous typos ( )

More from Benchley: one of the three great humorists of early 20th-c America--along with Thurber and Perelman. ( )