Benjamin Bennaton Vallentine

Background

Benjamin Valentine was born on September 7, 1843, in London. He was the son of Benjamin Vallentine, a toy merchant, and Rosa (Nathan) Vallentine.

Education

Vallentine always gave King Edward VI's School, Birmingham, as the place of his education, but the truth seems to be that most of his education was not obtained at any school.

He studied for the English bar and contributed to Sydney newspapers.

Career

As a youth, Vallentine spent several years in Australia, where he was a clerk in a shipping firm at Sydney. In 1870, he returned to England. In 1871, he came to New York City, where he lived until his death. In New York, he became a partner in a shipping house, but after the panic of 1873 turned to journalism. He was one of the founders of Puck in 1877 and served as managing editor from 1877 to 1884.

For Puck, he wrote the series of papers beginning in the March 1877 issue, which constitute his chief claim to remembrance. They purport to be the letters of one Lord Fitznoodle, a musical-comedy Britisher, concerning his adventures among the Americans. The satire, which frequently cuts both ways, is always good-natured and urbane. After leaving Puck, Vallentine served as managing editor of Irving Bacheller's newspaper syndicate (1886 - 88).

None of his plays seems to have been published, except a one-act version of In Paradise, but some, including Fadette (a comic opera), A Southern Romance, and In Paradise, were produced in New York, the first in 1892, the second in 1897, and the third in 1899.

In his later years, Vallentine fell upon hard times. He was registered at New York University Law School in 1907-08. In 1908, he took a civil service position as audit-inspector with the municipal finance department, but the salary was low and had to be pieced out by donations from his family and "loans" from his friends.

Achievements

• Vallentine did much editorial writing and dramatic criticism for New York newspapers and held other editorial positions. Always interested in the theatre, he became a familiar figure on Broadway and had a wide circle of theatrical acquaintance. He wrote, collaborated on, or adapted, a good many plays, most of them having no pretension to depth.

Personality

Vallentine lived in a furnished room, spending much of his time at his old haunt, the Lotos Club. About two years before the end his health failed, and he underwent several operations. Then one day in his eighty-third year he fell unconscious in a restaurant and was taken to Bellevue Hospital.

Annoyed at finding himself in a public hospital ward, he tried to get up and fell dead. Vallentine's friends remember him as a tiny man, with great flashing black eyes and quick, nervous gestures. He never lost his British accent nor all of his British way of looking at things. He was a good conversationalist and had an amazing memory and wide information.

Everyone testifies to the essential fineness of his character. He was a lively and interesting person rather than a man of genius, yet his connection with Puck and his creation of the comic character which gave him his nickname of "Fitznoodle" entitle him to be remembered.

Connections

Benjamin Bennaton had never married.

Father:

Benjamin Vallentine

Was a toy merchant

Mother:

Rosa (Nathan) Vallentine

References

• Dramatic compositions copyrighted in the United States, 1870 to 1916 .. Volume 1 1918 Hardcover