Ours is the age of substitutes: instead of language, we have jargon: instead of principles, slogans: and, instead of genuine ideas, bright ideas.

1941) where he received the John Addison Porter Prize. He edited the Grove Press issue of Brecht's work and recorded two albums of Brecht's songs for Folkways Records most of which had never before been recorded in English. Bentley is considered one of the preeminent experts on Bertolt Brecht whom he met at UCLA as a young man and whose works he has translated extensively.

From 1960-1961 Bentley was the Norton professor at Harvard University. That same year he declared his homosexuality.