Robert Benchley

(1889 - 1945)

Along with Robert Sherwood, Robert Benchley resigned from Vanity Fair in 1920 to protest the magazine’s firing of Dorothy Parker; the three friends soon became members of the Algonquin Round Table. Of the small office he at one time shared with Parker, he remarked, “One cubic foot less of space, and it would have constituted adultery.” Benchley served as the drama critic for The New Yorker from 1929 to 1940. Having taken actor David Niven’s advice to visit Venice, Benchley wired back on arrival, “Streets full of water. Advise.”