John O'Hara was notoriously temperamental. He once punched out a dwarf at "21" (New York's celebrated watering hole) and remarked, on another occasion, that "although I may often have felt like belting a woman, I have never actually taken a poke at one except in anger."

Nor were O'Hara's friends exempt. At one memorable party, he took a swing at Robert Benchley, and called the next morning to apologize. "For what, John?" Benchley replied. "You're a s--- and everybody knows you're a s---, and people ask you out in spite of it. It's nothing to apologize about."