Nathaniel Benchley was the author of several different types of
books, as well as plays, movies and magazine articles.
He attended Phillips Exeter Academy and Harvard College, majoring
in English. Shortly after graduation, he married Marjorie Bradford,
and they settled down in New York City, where he worked for several
newspapers and magazines. In 1941, before the attack on Pearl
Harbor, he joined the U. S. Navy and was later trained to command
small PT attack boats. He served in the Navy in the North and South
Atlantic theaters and was on his way to the Pacific campaign when
the war ended in 1945. He returned to New York and joined his wife
and five year-old son, Peter. The next year, they had another son,
Nathaniel Robert.
Nathaniel Benchley worked as a freelance writer -and painter- for
the next 36 years. He wrote novels, plays, short stories, reviews,
movie scripts and a very popular biography of the actor Humphrey
Bogart. Much of his material was drawn from his life in New York
and Nantucket, MA, where the family had a summer home. He found the
small town life in Nantucket was rich in characters and material
for adventures. He wrote a book titled The Off-Islanders, which was
later made into a successful movie called "The Russians Are Coming!
The Russians Are Coming!" It was the story of a Russian submarine
run aground on a small New England island. Several of his other
books were also made into movies.
His sideline as a painter of landscapes led to his participation in
many gallery showings.
Mr. Benchley used his fascination with history to create a series
of books for beginning and teen readers. His particular interest
was in taking a moment in history and examining it through the eyes
of a young boy. He told stories about the Vikings coming to what
would later be called "America;" Native American Indians dealing
with the new settlers in their land ("Small Wolf"); young boys in
Colonial America ("Sam the Minuteman" and "George the Drummer Boy")
and the movement west; and a young boy who joins the Navy during
World War II.
He also wrote a series of books for very beginning readers, many of
which were about animals and their special bonds with humans ("Red
Fox and His Canoe," "Oscar Otter").
He was always proudest of the letters he got from young readers who
had identified with one of his characters and wanted to ask
questions raised by their reading. He personally answered every
letter he got from his readers.
In 1974, his son, Peter, published his first novel, Jaws, based on
his experiences fishing off Nantucket in his youth (and a healthy
imagination).
For the last many years of his life, Nathaniel Benchley lived in
Nantucket with his wife.
Nathaniel Benchley lived by the motto: "A craftsman is one who does
what he is given to do better than others feel is necessary."He
died in Boston, MA, in 1981.
Arnold Lobel (1933-1987) illustrated many wonderful children's
books but is most beloved for his Frog and Toad stories, including
the first one, Frog and Toad Are Friends, published in 1970. The
books have garnered much acclaim, including a Caldecott Honor for
Frog and Toad Are Friends and a Newbery Honor for Frog and Toad
Together. These were followed by Frog and Toad All Year and Days
with Frog and Toad.
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