SOURCE: "Perelman Carries the Nation," in The Saturday Review of Literature, Vol. 27, No. 28, July 8, 1944, p. 19.

In the following review of Crazy Like a Fox, Sugrue characterizes Perelman as "the funniest man in America."

The publication of a selection of S. J. Perelman's "best" pieces is the most ominous note in American history since the first arrow of the Seminole War whizzed through the Florida night air and found flesh. There is no mistaking the implication of the event. Perelman is turning his eyes to the past, and the future is lost. Secure behind a bastion of twelve million dollars, which he made in Hollywood in six weeks, he has begun to tear up his college notebooks, give away old sweaters, swear off opium, pay up his bill at the dry cleaners, and buy the French maid an annuity for her young son. In short, the old master—absit...