Notables Not Unpleasant to Know: Letter B

In his nonsense verse “How pleasant to know Mr. Lear” the popularizer of the limerick makes amusing observations about himself. In the octaves below readers are urged to discover equally intriguing characters who, it’s hoped, will prove just as amusing and, in the end, just as “not unpleasant to know.”

Not unpleasant to know...? Mr. Burgess,*
household word post Frank's "purple cow" lyric.
'Twas a coup (as it duly emerges)
Frank consider'd unpleasantly Pyrrhic.
Drop Frank's tod! Keen no Kadd!** Urge no dirges:
just glom onto Frank's comic strip "Goops"
and the pleasant-to-know Gelett Burgess.
Who so seizes shall hoot till (s)he droops. 

     * Frank Gelett Burgess (1866-1951)

     ** Forget that Frank's dead! Sing Frank no Kaddish!
     (N.B.: Burgess was a master of the coined word.)

Also pleasant to know: Mr. Beckett.*

Each man's fate? States Sam: "Wait...for Godots!"**
I'll confess: sounds depressing. But heck! It
only recaps the chap's previous prose.
If, however, you're up for the trek, it
might amuse. (If not, Watt may be chose.)
As to pleasant-to-know Barclay Beckett,
Sam don't stress more nor less: Sam's necrose! 

     * Samuel Barclay Beckett (1906-1989) 

     ** Employed here is an American pronunciation:

the second syllable carrying the accent above its long 'o.'

Not unpleasant to know? Mr. Bentley.*

who gained fame as the clerihew guru.
(Ed invented 'em, too, incidently.)
Ed was also the entrepreneur who
penned the tome Trent's Last Case -- did it gently.
Folks who credit Ed's life but a blur rue
ev'ry day they neglect E. C. Bentley,
never hollering "Clerihew! Yoo-hoo!"

     * Edmund Clerihew Bentley (1875-1956)