Robert C. Benchley's sketches and articles, published in periodicals like "Life", "Vanity Fair" and "The New Yorker", earned him a reputation as one of the sharpest humourists of his time. This is a collection of pieces, selected by his son Nathaniel.

"Robert Benchley is the funniest writer who ever lived."-Dave Barry

Robert Benchley once described himself as a man at whom pigeons sneered, but his sketches and articles, published in periodicals like Life, Vanity Fair, and The New Yorker, earned him a reputation as one of the sharpest humorists of his time. His influence-on his fellows at the Algonquin Round Table, contemporaries such as James Thurber and S. J. Perelman, or followers like Woody Allen and Steve Martin-has left an indelible mark on the American comic tradition, a legacy more than safe from the opinions of birds.

The Benchley Roundup is made up of selections Benchley's son, Nathaniel, regarded as those "which seem to stand up best over the years," a smorgasbord of the most endearing and enduring pieces from the pen of one of American's funniest-and most penetrating-wits.