Research Catalog

Title

Writings / S. J. Perelman ; Adam Gopnik, editor.

Author

Perelman, S. J. (Sidney Joseph), 1904-1979

Publication

• New York, N.Y. : Library of America, [2021]
• United States : Penguin Random House Inc., [2021]
• ©2021

Items in the Library & Off-site

Holdings

Details

Additional Authors

Gopnik, Adam

Description

xxi, 583 pages; 21 cm.

Summary

"One of the most original stylists in American literature--and one of the funniest--Sidney Joseph Perelman wrote gags for the Marx Brothers, won an Oscar for screenwriting, and wrote or collaborated on five Broadway plays. But nowhere is his zany and pyrotechnic humor more hilariously on display than in the one-of-a-kind sketches and satires (Perelman called them feuilletons) he wrote for The New Yorker and other magazines. Their "great subject is singular and simply defined," writes editor Adam Gopnik in his introduction to this volume: "American vulgarity, flowing up and down like waves of electricity through a cat in a cartoon, exposing its innards even as it shocks our sensibilities. Gopnik presents here the best of them--parodies, social satires, autobiographical pieces, and a selection from the celebrated "Cloudland Revisited" series, in which Perelman reminisces about books and movies encountered in youth and describes the rude shock of revisiting them as an adult. In the early, Joycean piece called "Scenario," Perelman offers a surrealistic take on a Hollywood pitch meeting--a collage of on- and off-screen clichés, show biz argot, and popular slang that rolls on in one continuous paragraph. In "Farewell, My Lovely Appetizer," he sends up the hardboiled detective fiction of Raymond Chandler: "I kicked open the bottom drawer of her desk, let two inches of rye trickle down my craw, kissed Birdie square on her lush, red mouth, and set fire to a cigarette." "No Starch in My Dhoti, S'il Vous Plaît" imagines an exchange of letters between Jawaharlal Nehru's increasingly irate father and a snooty Parisian launderer over a pair of damaged drawers. Also included in this volume is Perelman's most sustained piece of writing, his two-act comedy, The Beauty Part, which opened on December 26, 1962, at New York's Music Box Theatre and closed shortly afterward, the casualty of an unfortunately timed newspaper strike. The idea for this outrageous spoof about money, art, and the ubiquitous desire for self-expression, Perelman was fond of saying, came to him one day when he was riding the elevator of Manhattan's Sutton Hotel: the operator stopped the car between floors and announced, "I'm having trouble with my second act." Rounding out the volume are profiles of the Marx Brothers, Dorothy Parker, and his brother-in-law Nathanael West from the unfinished autobiography, "The Hindsight Saga," and a selection of letters written to correspondents such as Edmund Wilson, Groucho Marx, and Paul Theroux."

Series Statement

The Library of America ; 346

Uniform Title

Library of America ; 346.

Alternative Title

S. J. Perelman : writings

Subject

• Perelman, S. J. 1904-1979 > Correspondence
• Perelman, S. J. 1904-1979 > Drama
• Perelman, S. J. 1904-1979
• 1900-1999
• 20th century
• Humorists, American > 20th century > Correspondence
• Youth > Drama
• American wit and humor
• Short stories, American
• American drama
• Humorists, American
• Youth

Genre/Form

• Comedy plays.
• Humor.
• Drama.
• Short stories.
• Humorous fiction.

Note

• "Library of Congress Control Number: 20211932051"

Bibliography (note)

• Includes bibliographical references.

Contents

• Introduction: Perelman, the Pearl of Providence / Adam Gopnik -- Sketches and Satires. Puppets of passion: a throbbing story of youth's hot revolt against the conventions -- Those charming people: the latest report on the Weinbloom reptile expedition -- Scenario -- Strictly from hunger -- The love decoy: a story of youth in college today-awake, fearless, unashamed -- Waiting for Santy: a Christmas playlet -- Frou-frou, or the future of vertigo -- Captain future, block that kick! -- Midwinter facial trends -- Counter-revolution -- Beat me, post-impressionist Daddy -- A pox on you, mine goodly host -- Bend down, sister -- Beauty and the bee -- Button, button, who's got the blend? -- Swing out, sweet chariot -- A couple of quick ones: two portraits -- Hell in the Gabardines -- Farewell, my lovely appetizer -- Hit him again, he's sober -- Physician, steel thyself -- Take two parts sand, one part girl, and stir -- Sleepy-time extra -- Amo, Amas, Amat, Amamus, Amatis, enough! -- Send no money, honey -- Acres and pains: chapter one -- Acres and pains: chapter twelve -- Don't bring me Oscars (when it's shoesies that I need) -- Rancors aweigh -- Mama don't want no rice -- Columbia, the crumb of the ocean -- Whenas in sulks my Julia goes -- Cloudland revisited: why, doctor, what big green eyes you have! -- Chewies the goat but flicks need hypo -- Salesman, spare that psyche -- The song is endless, but the malady lingers on -- A girl and a boy anthropoid were dancing -- Cloudland revisited: rock-a-bye, viscount, in the treetop -- Cloudland revisited: when to the sessions of sweet silent films -- No starch in the Dhoti, Sʹil vous plaît -- Cloudland revisited: the wickedest woman in Larchmont -- Swindle sheet with blueblood engrailed, arrant fibs rampant -- Cloudland revisited: I'm sorry I made me cry -- Sorry - no phone or mail orders -- Next week at the Prado: Frankie Goya plus monster cast -- You're my everything, plus city sales tax -- Eline Kleine Mothmusik -- Where do you work-a, John? -- Portrait of the artist as a young mime -- This is the forest primeval -- Impresario on the Lam -- Revulsion in the desert -- Are you decent, Memsahib? -- Tell me clear, parachutist dear, are you man or mouse? -- Sex and the single boy -- A soft answer turneth away royalties -- Hello, central, give me that jolly old pelf -- The sweet chick gone -- Nobody knows the rubble I've seen/nobody knows but croesus -- Three loves had I, in assorted flavors -- Be a cat's-paw! Lose big money! -- Moonstruck at sunset.
• The beauty part: a comedy in two acts -- The hindsight saga: three fragments from an autobiography. The Marx Brothers ; Nathanael West ; Dorothy Parker -- Selected letters. To Edmund Wilson (September 2, 1929) ; To I.J. Kapstein (October 9, 1930) ; To Groucho Marx (April 7, 1943) ; To Frances and Albert Hackett (August 14, 1949) ; To Abby Perelman (April 15, 1954) ; To Leila Hadley (August 21, 1955) ; To Leila Hadley (September 16, 1955) ; To Betsy Drake (September 28, 1955) ; To Leila Hadley (August 25, 1956) ; To Leila Hadley (November 22, 1956) ; To Paul Theroux (October 18, 1976) ; To Paul Theroux (December 24, 1976).

Call Number

PS221

ISBN

• 9781598536928
• 1598536923

OCLC

• 1264677570
• 1264677570

Author

Perelman, S. J. (Sidney Joseph), 1904-1979, author.

Title

Writings / S. J. Perelman ; Adam Gopnik, editor.

Publisher

New York, N.Y. : Library of America, [2021]

Distributor

United States : Penguin Random House Inc., [2021]

Copyright Date

©2021

Type of Content

text

Type of Medium

unmediated

Type of Carrier

volume

Creator/Contributor Characteristics

Americans

Series

The Library of America ; 346

Library of America ; 346.

Bibliography

Includes bibliographical references.

Chronological Term

1900-1999

20th century.

Added Author

Gopnik, Adam, editor.

LCCN

2021932051

Research Call Number

*R-RMRR PS221 .A4 v. 346