The average bookstore doesn't have a big comedy section, and what's there is more likely to be the latest hilarity from a Sedaris, rather than collected humor from Robert Benchley, George Ade or S.J. Perelman. Most joke books from deceased comedians such as Milton Berle, Steve Allen, Morey Amsterdam and Henny Youngman are out of print.
The Smiths have not had it so great. I accept that a lot of my books have been remaindered, but so have the tomes of Thorne Smith, who was once the king of the "saucy" comic novel. People might remember "Topper," but that's about it. H. Allen Smith write "Life in a Putty Knife Factory" and other works that were once on the shelf next to Corey Ford's 'The Day Nothing Happened" and the cartoon books of Steig.
There was also a guy named Robert Paul Smith. I first found one of his books remaindered at the Marboro bookshop on 8th Street in Greenwich Village, next to the pile of "Ensign O'Toole and Me" by William J. Lederer.
The Smith book I found was a gruff little collection of fatherly advice called "How To Grow Up In One Piece" (1963). I later acquired the even funnier wrote "Translations from the English" (1958). It turned out that his most famous book was written in 1957: "Where Did You Go? OUT. What did you do? Nothing." He wrote serious novels in the 40's that he disavowed, and also verse and children's books. He was well known enough to do a TV interview with Edward R. Murrow. He's hardly known at all now. He also wrote for humor magazines.
Below, an obscurity from the pages of the infamous magazine edited by Paul Krassner, THE REALIST.
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