S J Perelman a Life - Hardcover

In this well-researched but humdrum biography of the noted Brooklyn-born author (19041979)"he preferred to be thought of as a writer, not a humorist"we follow Perelman's experiences from a poor Jewish boyhood in Providence, R.I. and aspiring playwright in New York to screenwriting in Hollywood and eventual emergence as a revered cult figure. Word-play and parody, not self-revealing emotions, were the foundations of his humor and personality. Inhibited, egocentric, insecure, Perelman was a meticulous stylist, fastidious dresser and ceaseless womanizer, but he never learned to be a loving husband or a warm, nurturing father to his two children, shows Herrmann. When he was in the mood, he could be charming socially, but in business he tended to be tough, suspicious ("to the point of paranoia"), rude and high-handed. Herrmann (With Malice Toward All describes his relations with Groucho Marx, Bert Lahr, Dorothy Parker and other entertainers, but focuses on his long infatuation with Nathanael West, the brother-in-law whose early death had a devastating effect on him. Sid (as Herrmann prefers to refer to Perelman) was an intensely private man, and he remains a rather blurry figureand certainly not an attractive one. Photos not seen by PW.
Copyright 1987 Reed Business Information, Inc.

When Sid Perelman died in 1979, states this intimate biography (the first since his death), "a special type of humorhighly literate and inventive, yet cranky and thoroughly irreverentpassed from the contemporary scene." For 40 years, Perelman's misanthropic yet wildly comic wit graced the pages of the New Yorker , strongly influencing everyone from Groucho Marx to Woody Allen. But Perelman remained elusive, an intensely private man on whom this exhaustive, richly anecdotal treatment sheds much welcome light. Perelman's troubled marriage to Nathanael West's sister Laura; his close relationship with West; his recurrent depression; and the sad irony of his decline after Laura's death in 1970 are all explored, helping to illuminate this unique American humorist. David Sowd, Stark Cty. District Lib., Canton, Ohio
Copyright 1986 Reed Business Information, Inc.