S. J. Perelman

Sidney Joseph Perelman (1904–1979) was an American humorist, essayist, playwright, and screenwriter celebrated for his sophisticated satire, elaborate wordplay, and parodies of popular culture, which appeared prominently in The New Yorker and extended to stage and screen works. Born on February 1, 1904, in Brooklyn, New York, to Russian Jewish immigrant parents Joseph and Sophia Perelman, he was raised in Providence, Rhode Island, where his father operated a series of small businesses. Perelman attended Brown University (class of 1925), initially pursuing a career as a cartoonist and contributing humorous pieces to magazines like Judge and College Humor. His first book, Dawn Ginsbergh's Revenge (1929), a collection of satirical vignettes, brought early recognition and was promoted by Groucho Marx.

In 1930, Perelman moved to Hollywood, where he co-wrote screenplays for two Marx Brothers films, Monkey Business (1931) and Horse Feathers (1932), collaborating with his brother-in-law Nathanael West; these efforts marked his entry into film comedy, though he grew disillusioned with the industry and returned to New York in 1932. He married West's sister, Laura West, in 1929, and the couple had two children, Adam and Abby, before her death in 1970. Settling into literary work, Perelman became a staple contributor to The New Yorker starting in the mid-1930s, producing feuilletons like those collected in Crazy Like a Fox (1944) and The Road to Miltown; or, Under the Spreading Atrophy (1957), which blended highbrow allusions with absurd scenarios drawn from advertising, detective fiction, and Hollywood tropes.

Sidney Joseph Perelman was born on February 1, 1904, in Brooklyn, New York, to Joseph and Sophie Perelman, Russian Jewish immigrants who had settled in the United States seeking better opportunities. As their only child, Perelman grew up in a close-knit but financially precarious household, with his parents embodying the struggles of early 20th-century immigrant life in America.