Robert newton peck nathaniel benchley essay

His 1961 novel The Off-Islanders was made into comedy feature The Russians Are Coming, the Russians Are Coming by director/producer Norman Jewison in 1965. The Visitors (1965) was adapted as a horror/comedy feature The Spirit Is Willing by Paramount Pictures in 1967.

They settled in New York City and had two sons, one before and one after World War II. Elder son Peter Benchley (1940–2006) was a writer, known best for the novel Jaws and the screenplay for its Steven Spielberg film, the 1975 best-seller Jaws.

Born in Newton, Massachusetts to a literary family, he was the son of Robert Benchley (1889–1945), a noted American writer, humorist, critic, and actor and one founder of the Algonquin Round Table in New York City, and Gertrude Darling. He graduated from Phillips Exeter Academy and Harvard College.

Benchley enlisted in the U.S. Navy prior to the attack on Pearl Harbor. He served as a public relations officer, and on destroyers and patrol craft in North Atlantic convoy duty ( Battle of the Atlantic ), and was transferred to the Pacific Theater in 1945.