Anderson, Maxwell. Mary of Scotland. Garden City, NY: Doubleday, Doran, 1934.

From the Clifton Waller Barrett Library of American Literature.

Modern Playwrights I

Maxwell Anderson

Playwriting followed teaching and journalism as Maxwell Anderson's third vocation. He collaborated with Laurence Stallings on his earliest success What Price Glory? (1924), a play about American soldiers in France during World War I. Anderson's love of traditional literature, poetry, and drama influenced all his plays, and the 1920s saw the honing of his playwriting skills with such works as Saturday's Children (1927), Gods of the Lightning (1928), and Gypsy (1929).

Lithograph, signed, by Don Freeman, entitled "The Queen and the Stagehand." [1933].

Courtesy of the University of Virginia Art Museum.

Anderson ushered in the next decade with his blank-verse drama Elizabeth the Queen (1930). This decade found Anderson at the height of his career with twelve of his plays being produced professionally, including Both Your Houses (1933; winner of the Pulitzer Prize), Mary of Scotland (1933), Winterset (1935; winner of the New York Drama Critics Circle Award), Wingless Victory (1936), The Masque of Kings (1937), and Knickerbocker Holiday (1938; a musical for which he wrote the book and lyrics).

The Theatre Guild Inc. Presents "Mary of Scotland." A New Play by Maxwell Anderson, with Helen Hayes. Playbill for the Alvin Theatre. New York: New York Theatre Program, [1933].

Gift of Doris Farr.

Maxwell Anderson's bent for historical tragedy and verse drama found further creative expression with the coming of World War II. The war profoundly affected Anderson, who translated his feelings into the plays Journey to Jerusalem (1940), Candle in the Wind (1941), Storm Operation (1944), Truckline Cafe (1946), and Joan of Lorraine (1946). The last three noted plays that Anderson produced were Anne of the Thousand Days (1948), Lost in the Stars (1949), and Barefoot in Athens (1951). Maxwell Anderson died in 1959, after more than thirty years of active participation in America's theatre.

Typed rehearsal script of "Come Back, Little Sheba" by William Inge. Adapted for radio by Robert Anderson and produced by the Theatre Guild. 4 February 1951.

From the Clifton Waller Barrett Library of American Literature.

William Inge

Midwestern playwright William Inge was born, raised, and educated in Kansas. During the 1950s, Inge made his mark as a playwright with four successful plays, Come Back, Little Sheba (1950), the Pulitzer Prize-winning Picnic (1953), Bus Stop (1955), and The Dark at the Top of the Stairs (1957). All set in small Midwestern towns, Inge's plays sensitively portrayed the complexities of the American family.

The Theatre Guild and Joshua Logan Present "Picnic," the Pulitzer Prize-Drama Critics' Award Play, by William Inge. Playbill for The Music Box. [New York]: Playbill, [1955].

Gift of Doris Farr.

June Schlueter writes in The Cambridge History of American Theatre that Inge "examines a large but typical cast of characters and relationships, repeatedly creating situations that dramatize the details of lives anesthetized by habit, dreams suffocated by compromise, and sexuality denied-the stuff of small-town America."

Robert Whitehead and Roger L. Stevens Present "Bus Stop" by William Inge. Playbill for The Music Box. [New York]: Playbill, [1954].

Gift of Doris Farr.

All four of Inge's best-known plays were translated into popular Hollywood films. However, his later plays failed to have the same impact on and appeal to audiences and critics. The only notable success that Inge achieved after his plays of the 1950s came with his 1961 Academy Award-winning original screenplay for Splendor in the Grass. Having fought alcoholism and depression for many years, William Inge took his own life in 1973.