S.J. Perelman

Oscar-winning screenwriter S. J. Perelman was one of the great American humorists, a master at short fiction involving word play and satire who influenced countless American humorists, including Woody Allen. He was born Simeon Joseph Perleman (though known as Sidney or Sydney to family and friends) on February 1, 1904 in Brooklyn, New York, and was raised in Providence, Rhode Island, where he attended Brown University. Starting in the 1920s, he became a cartoonist and humorist. His friends would include Robert Benchley and Dorothy Parker, two of the key members of the famed Algonquin Round Table. (Perleman was never a member, though caricaturist Al Hirschfeld, who illustrated some of Perleman's books, once created a cartoon called "Algonquin Round Table with S. J. Perelman Sitting in Booth Nearby" the year of his death.) He made his reputation writing short stories, satires and humorous pieces for "The New Yorker" and other top magazines. He described his short humorist pieces as feu