SOURCE: "Beware the Leaches," in Newsweek, Vol. 65, No. 17, April 26, 1965, pp. 98-100.

In the following review of Fred Allen's Letters, the critic finds an undercurrent of darkness in Allen's humor that was seldom revealed on his radio programs.

"You can count on the thumb of one hand," wrote James Thurber, "the American who is at once a comedian, a humorist, a wit, and a satirist, and his name is Fred Allen." Each Sunday night in the 1930s and '40s, listeners out there in radio land counted on Allen's sly wit and bemused nasality to give them courage for the coming work week. The comedian himself delivered the goods dependably, at great benefit to his listeners, and great cost to himself.

Allen's fame was a lifetime ordeal. "success is wonderful up to a certain point," he once wrote Herman Wouk in the lower-case typewritten style he had used since...