Nathaniel Benchley
Nathaniel Goddard Benchley was an American writer born on November 13, 1915, in Newton, Massachusetts, and was the son of renowned humorist Robert Benchley. He graduated from Phillips Exeter Academy in 1934 and earned a Bachelor of Science degree in English from Harvard University in 1938. After marrying Marjorie Bradford in 1939, he began his career as a city reporter for the New York Herald Tribune. His military service in the U.S. Navy during World War II included roles in public relations and antisubmarine patrol.
Benchley's writing career flourished post-war, as he contributed to prominent magazines and published his first novel, *Side Street*, in 1950, which was later adapted into a Broadway play. He also authored biographies, humorous stories, and children's literature, gaining recognition in both the adult and young adult fiction genres. Notably, his son, Peter Benchley, became famous for the thriller *Jaws*. Nathaniel Benchley passed away in 1981, leaving behind a legacy that included various novels and children's books.
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Nathaniel Benchley
Writer
- Born: November 13, 1915
- Birthplace: Newton, Massachusetts
- Died: December 14, 1981
- Place of death: Boston, Massachusetts
Biography
Nathaniel Goddard Benchley was born on November 13, 1915, in Newton, Massachusetts. His father was Robert Benchley, a well- known humor writer, and his mother was Gertrude Darling. In 1934, Nathaniel Benchley graduated from Phillips Exeter Academy. In 1938, he received a bachelor of science degree from Harvard University. While a student at Harvard, Benchley majored in English and was a member of the Hasty Pudding Institute of 1770, participating in several of its shows.
In 1939, Benchley married Marjorie Bradford, and he began a three-year stint as a city reporter for the New York Herald Tribune. His son Peter Bradford Benchley was born on May 8, 1940. The couple also had a second son, Nathaniel Robert Benchley. From 1941 to 1946, Benchley served in the United States Navy for the duration of World War II. He spent the first two years in the Navy Public Relations Department and the next two on PC boats on antisubmarine patrol and escort duty.
In 1946, he worked as an assistant editor for Newsweek’s entertainment section. A year later, he had been so successful publishing short stories and articles in other publications that he became a full-time freelance writer. His work appeared in McCall’s, Ladies’ Home Journal, Esquire, Escapade, and The New Yorker. He was inspired by his daily life and wrote about raising his son and living in a postwar society filled with sometimes confusing consumer goods and interpersonal relationships. He was also writing novels.
In 1950, he published his first novel, Side Street, a collection of vignettes of contemporary society. The novel was adapted by the author into a play, The Frogs of Spring (pr. 1954), which ran on Broadway. Between 1951 and 1952, Benchley returned to drama criticism for a column entitled “Offstage” in Theater Arts magazine. In the years that followed, he continued to write novels and produced a biography of his father, who had died of liver disease in 1945, as well as a collection of humorous stories written by his father.
In the 1960’s, several of Benchley’s novels were turned into motion pictures. Benchley also began to write children’s stories. In the 1970’s, he very successfully branched out into young adult books. The family also moved their permanent residence to Nantucket. The island was one of Benchley’s childhood vacation spots, and he used it as a location in some of his books.
In 1974, Peter Benchley’s first novel, Jaws, was published and became a best seller and a blockbuster motion picture. That same year, his father’s young adult book Bright Candles was chosen as an American Library Association Notable Book. A year earlier, his father’s young adult novel Only Earth and Sky Last Forever (1972) won the 1973 Western Writers of America Award for Juvenile Fiction.
Both young adult books received praise for the immediacy and drama of the events portrayed. In Bright Candles, Jens, a sixteen-year-old Danish teen, leads a dual life as a member of the underground resistance smuggling Jews to safety in Sweden and as a member of an execution squad. In Only Earth and Sky Last Forever, Dark Elk, a Cheyenne warrior, sets out on a series of adventures to prove he is worthy to marry Lahuka, the girl he loves, and ends up riding with Crazy Horse at the Battle of the Little Bighorn.
Benchley died of liver disease in 1981. That year also saw the publication of three of his children’s books and one adult novel. A final adult novel was published posthumously.