Nathaniel Benchley

Writer, born in Boston, Massachusetts, USA, the son of humorist Robert Benchley. He wrote a number of books for children, including Small Wolf (1972), Bright Candles (1974), and Walter, the Homing Pigeon (1981). The Off Islanders (1962) was later made into a successful film, The Russians Are Coming, the Russians Are Coming! (1966). His son, Peter Benchley (1940–2006), was also a novelist.

Nathaniel Benchley was the highly-respected author of many children's/juvenile books that provided learning for the youthful readers with stories of various animals or through the book's historical settings.

Film director/producer, Norman Jewison made Benchley's 1962 novel The Off-Islanders into a motion picture titled The Russians Are Coming, the Russians Are Coming for which he received the nomination for an Academy Award for Writing Adapted Screenplay.

His son, Peter Benchley, also became a writer best known for the book and screenplay for the 1975 film, Jaws.

Partial bibliography, children/juvenile books:

Sinbad the Sailor (1960) The Off-Islanders (1962) Red Fox and His Canoe (1964) Oscar Otter (1966) The Strange Disappearance of Arthur Cluck (1967) Ghost Named Fred (1968) Sam the Minuteman (1969) The Several Tricks of Edgar Dolphin (1970) Feldman Fieldmouse: A Fable (1971) The Magic Sled (1972) Small Wolf (1972) Only Earth and Sky Last Forever (1972) The Deep Dives of Stanley Whale (1973) Bright Candles: A Novel of the Danish Resistance (1974) Beyond the Mists (1975) Snorri and the Strangers (1976) Kilroy and the Gull (1977) George the Drummer Boy (1977) Running Owl the Hunter (1979) Walter, the Homing Pigeon (1981)

Partial bibliography, novels:

Sail a Crooked Ship (1960) Catch a Falling Spy (1964) A Winter's Tale (1964) The Visitors (1965) The Monument (1966) Welcome to Xanadu (1968) The Wake of the Icarus (1969) Lassiter's Folly (1971) A Necessary End: A Novel of World War II (1976) Sweet Anarchy (1979) Portrait of a Scoundrel (1979) All Over Again (1981) Speakeasy (1982)