During World War I, Abie Levy, a soldier in the A. E. F., is wounded in combat. While recovering in a hospital, he meets Rosemary Murphy, an entertainer. They fall in love, return to the United States, and get married in an Episcopal church in Jersey City. Abie takes Rosemary to his home and introduces her as his sweetheart, Rosie Murpheski; they are then married by a rabbi. Mr. Murphy arrives with a priest and, amid discord and discontent, the young people are married again, this time by the priest. Disowned by both families, Rosemary and Abie are befriended only by the Cohens. On Christmas Eve, the Cohens and their rabbi persuade Solomon to see his son and his new grandchildren; the priest urges Mr. Murphy to do the same. This surprise visit begins in acrimony, but ends peacefully as Rosemary presents her newborn twins: Patrick Joseph, named for her father, and Rebecca, named for Abie's dead mother.

39 pieces show Benchley at the height of his writing.

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 humorists of his time; his influence—on contemporaries such as E. B. White, James Thurber, and S. J. Perelman, or followers like Woody Allen, Steve Martin, and Richard Pryor—has left an indelible mark on the American comic tradition. The Benchley Roundup collects those pieces, selected by Benchley's son Nathaniel, "which seem to stand up best over the years"-a compendium of the most endearing and enduring work from one of America's funniest and most penetrating wits. "It took me fifteen years to discover that I had no talent for writing, but I couldn't give it up because by then I was too famous." —Robert Benchley

This book is the first full-length annotated bibliography of the works of humorist Robert Benchley. It contains chapters on his books, essays, newspaper writings, dramatic criticism, plus a filmography and a discography. Also included is a chapter on secondary sources about his life. When humorist Robert Benchley died in 1945 at the age of 56, he left behind a large body of little-known material. Some of this material was collected into book form during and after Benchley's lifetime, but much of it remains uncollected. This annotated bibliography brings together in one volume citations to most of Benchley's collected and uncollected works. The volume contains chapters on Benchley's books, essays, newspaper writings, dramatic criticism, secondary sources about him, a filmography, and a discography. The books chapter contains all of Benchley's major books and lists the contents of each. The chapters on his essays and newspaper writings detail his work for such publications as the New Yorker, Life, Liberty, Vanity Fair, the New York Tribune, New York World, and the Chicago Tribune. The dramatic criticism chapter contains all his theater reviews, for Life and the New Yorker, with the titles of the reviewed plays and the authors for each. Entries are numbered, cross-referenced, and indexed to assist the reader.

The world of theatre criticism is rapidly changing in its form, function and modes of operation in the twenty-first century. The dominance of the internet has led to a growing trend of selfappointed theatre critics and bloggers who are changing the focus and purpose of the discussion around live performance. Even though the blogosphere has garnered suspicion and hostility from some mainstream newspaper critics, it has also provided significant intellectual and ideological challenges to the increasingly conservative profile of the professional critic. This book features 16 commissioned contributions from scholars, arts journalists and bloggers, as well as a small selection of innovative critical practice. Authors from Australia, Canada, Croatia, Germany, Greece, Italy, Latvia, Russia, the UK and the US share their perspectives on relevant historical, theoretical and political contexts influencing the development of the discipline, as well as specific aspects of the contemporary practices and genres of theatre criticism. The book features an introductory essay by its editor, Duška Radosavljevic.

A collection of seventy humorous short stories by an American author.