S. N. Behrman
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Samuel Nathaniel Behrman (; June 9, 1893 – September 9, 1973) was an American playwright, screenwriter, biographer, and longtime writer for ''
The New Yorker ''The New Yorker'' is an American weekly magazine featuring journalism, commentary, criticism, essays, fiction, satire, cartoons, and poetry. Founded as a weekly in 1925, the magazine is published 47 times annually, with five of these issues ...
''. His son is the composer David Behrman.


Biography


Early years

Behrman's parents, Zelda (Feingold) and Joseph Behrman, emigrated from what is now Lithuania to the United States, where Samuel Nathaniel Behrman was born, the youngest of three sons, in a tenement in Worcester, Massachusetts in 1893. His parents spoke little English, and his father was a
Talmud The Talmud (; he, , Talmūḏ) is the central text of Rabbinic Judaism and the primary source of Jewish religious law (''halakha'') and Jewish theology. Until the advent of modernity, in nearly all Jewish communities, the Talmud was the cente ...
ic scholar. (Though known for his sophisticated comedies and worldly characters, Behrman fondly dramatized his family-centered, impoverished childhood in one of his last plays, the 1958 ''The Cold Wind and the Warm,'' an autobiographical drama starring Eli Wallach,
Maureen Stapleton Lois Maureen Stapleton (June 21, 1925 – March 13, 2006) was an American actress. She received numerous accolades, including an Academy Award, a Golden Globe Award, a BAFTA Award, a Primetime Emmy Award, and two Tony Awards, in addition to ...
, and Morris Carnovsky.) His own path, however, took him far from the Orthodox world of his parents. A schoolmate and intimate friend, Daniel Asher, brought him to the theater when he was eleven to see ''Devil's Island'', inspiring in him a love of the stage. "When he was a boy, Behrman saw all the famous plays and players of the first decade
f the twentieth century F, or f, is the sixth letter in the Latin alphabet, used in the modern English alphabet, the alphabets of other western European languages and others worldwide. Its name in English is ''ef'' (pronounced ), and the plural is ''efs''. Hist ...
as an usher in a Worcester theater."Atkinson, p. 271. At fifteen, he ran away from home with another schoolmate for four days and stayed in New York City. Life in Worcester began to appear increasingly limited. At seventeen, he saw a production of George Bernard Shaw's ''Caesar and Cleopatra'' at Boston's Park Street Theatre that determined him on his course; that play "seduced me to the theatre," he later remarked. After graduating from high school, Behrman attempted a career as an actor on the vaudeville circuit. Bad health forced him to quit, and he returned home to Worcester and attended Clark University. There he studied under the noted psychologist G. Stanley Hall and heard Sigmund Freud lecture on his 1909 American tour. He immersed himself in the plays of Ibsen, Strindberg, Shaw, Arthur Pinero, and Maurice Maeterlinck.


College

College was a mixed experience for Behrman. He was repeatedly suspended for failing mandatory physical education classes. Daniel Asher, who devotedly believed in his friend's future, urged Behrman to take courses at nearby Harvard University. There he enrolled in an English composition class with the renowned writing instructor,
Charles Townsend Copeland Charles Townsend Copeland (April 27, 1860 – July 24, 1952) was a professor, poet, and writer. He graduated from Harvard University and spent much of his time as a mentor at Harvard, where he served in several posts, including Boylston Profess ...
. He was suspended at Clark again in his sophomore year, at which time he transferred to Harvard. (in 1949, Clark University awarded Behrman an honorary degree.) While in Copeland's class in 1915, he sold a short story to the magazine ''The Parisienne''. He then submitted one of his dramatic manuscripts to
George Pierce Baker George Pierce Baker (April 4, 1866 – January 6, 1935) was a professor of English at Harvard and Yale and author of ''Dramatic Technique'', a codification of the principles of drama. Biography Baker graduated in the Harvard College class of 1887 ...
, whose playwriting workshop was one of the university's most respected courses. (Other famous alumni of the class include Eugene O'Neill, Thomas Wolfe, Sidney Howard, and Philip Barry.) Baker was impressed with Behrman's student work. In the ''New York Tribune'' nineteen years later, he would title an essay "Baker's Last Drama Lecture: From
Aeschylus Aeschylus (, ; grc-gre, Αἰσχύλος ; c. 525/524 – c. 456/455 BC) was an ancient Greek tragedian, and is often described as the father of tragedy. Academic knowledge of the genre begins with his work, and understanding of earlier Greek ...
to Behrman," in tribute to his famous student. In 1916, Behrman was the only undergraduate in the legendary "47 Workshop" playwriting class, where he studied George Meredith's comedy. He earned his B.A. at Harvard and went on to graduate studies at
Columbia University Columbia University (also known as Columbia, and officially as Columbia University in the City of New York) is a private research university in New York City. Established in 1754 as King's College on the grounds of Trinity Church in Manhatt ...
. While at Columbia, where he received his M.A. in 1918, Behrman studied under the noted theater critic and historian
Brander Matthews James Brander Matthews (February 21, 1852 – March 31, 1929) was an American academic, writer and literary critic. He was the first full-time professor of dramatic literature at Columbia University in New York and played a significant role in est ...
. He was supported for a time by his brothers Hiram and Morris, who ran a successful accounting firm and who were willing to help their younger brother complete his education and try to establish himself as a writer. Living in a cold-water flat in Manhattan, Behrman worked in his twenties as a book reviewer, newspaper interviewer, and press agent, collaborated on three undistinguished plays, and published short stories in several magazines, including ''The Smart Set,'' the monthly edited by H.L. Mencken and George Jean Nathan. His first play under his own name, ''The Second Man,'' was a dramatization of a story he had written for ''The Smart Set'' in 1919 and, when produced by the Theater Guild in 1927, made his reputation. Noël Coward, who became a friend, acted in the London production.


Writing career

From the late 1920s through the 1940s, S. N. Behrman was considered one of Broadway's leading authors of "high comedy," was often produced by the famous
Theatre Guild The Theatre Guild is a theatrical society founded in New York City in 1918 by Lawrence Langner, Philip Moeller, Helen Westley and Theresa Helburn. Langner's wife, Armina Marshall, then served as a co-director. It evolved out of the work of the W ...
, and wrote for such stars as
Ina Claire Ina Claire (born Ina Fagan; October 15, 1893February 21, 1985) was an American stage and film actress. Early years Ina Fagan was born October 15, 1893 in Washington, D.C. After the death of her father, Claire began doing imitations of fellow bo ...
,
Katharine Cornell Katharine Cornell (February 16, 1893June 9, 1974) was an American stage actress, writer, theater owner and producer. She was born in Berlin to American parents and raised in Buffalo, New York. Dubbed "The First Lady of the Theatre" by critic A ...
, Jane Cowl, and the acting team of
Alfred Lunt Alfred David Lunt (August 12, 1892 – August 3, 1977) was an American actor and director, best known for his long stage partnership with his wife, Lynn Fontanne, from the 1920s to 1960, co-starring in Broadway theatre, Broadway and West End thea ...
and
Lynn Fontanne Lynn Fontanne (; 6 December 1887 – 30 July 1983) was an English actress. After early success in supporting roles in the West End, she met the American actor Alfred Lunt, whom she married in 1922 and with whom she co-starred in Broadway and We ...
, who became his good friends. One journalist remembered him from this period as "slim, dark-eyed, curly-haired...with the brooding melancholy of a young Jewish intellectual." Theater critic and historian Brooks Atkinson described Behrman as "one of the Guild's most adored authors." Along with Elmer Rice, Maxwell Anderson,
Robert E. Sherwood Robert Emmet Sherwood (April 4, 1896 – November 14, 1955) was an American playwright and screenwriter. He is the author of ''Waterloo Bridge, Idiot's Delight, Abe Lincoln in Illinois, Rebecca, There Shall Be No Night, The Best Years of Our L ...
, and Sidney Howard, he was later one of the five founding members of the Playwright's Company. Among his greatest Broadway successes were ''Biography'' (1932), ''End of Summer'' (1936), and ''No Time for Comedy'' (1939). His stage adaptation of Enid Bagnold's novel ''
Serena Blandish Serena most commonly refers to: * Serena Williams (born 1981), professional tennis player Serena may also refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media * Serena (genre), 13th-century Occitan poetic genre * ''Serena'' (1962 film), a British crime th ...
'' became a success for actress
Ruth Gordon Ruth Gordon Jones (October 30, 1896 – August 28, 1985) was an American actress, screenwriter, and playwright. She began her career performing on Broadway at age 19. Known for her nasal voice and distinctive personality, Gordon gained internati ...
. A well-read man of wide culture, he also adapted plays by
Jean Giraudoux Hippolyte Jean Giraudoux (; 29 October 1882 – 31 January 1944) was a French novelist, essayist, diplomat and playwright. He is considered among the most important French dramatists of the period between World War I and World War II. His work ...
and Marcel Achard and "
Jane Jane may refer to: * Jane (given name), a feminine given name * Jane (surname), related to the given name Film and television * ''Jane'' (1915 film), a silent comedy film directed by Frank Lloyd * ''Jane'' (2016 film), a South Korean drama fil ...
," a short story by his good friend
W. Somerset Maugham William Somerset Maugham ( ; 25 January 1874 – 16 December 1965) was an English writer, known for his plays, novels and short stories. Born in Paris, where he spent his first ten years, Maugham was schooled in England and went to a German un ...
. With composer
Harold Rome Harold Jacob "Hecky" Rome (May 27, 1908 – October 26, 1993) was an American composer, lyricist, and writer for musical theater. Biography Rome was born in Hartford, Connecticut and graduated from Hartford Public High School. Originally, he ch ...
, he adapted
Marcel Pagnol Marcel Paul Pagnol (; 28 February 1895 – 18 April 1974) was a French novelist, playwright, and filmmaker. Regarded as an auteur, in 1946, he became the first filmmaker elected to the Académie française. Although his work is less fashionable ...
's '' Fanny'' trilogy into a musical play for the stage. His 1942 Broadway play, ''The Pirate'', was turned into a musical for the film version in 1948, also called '' The Pirate''. In Hollywood, Behrman enjoyed a lucrative second career as a screenwriter. He wrote screenplays for
Greta Garbo Greta Garbo (born Greta Lovisa Gustafsson; 18 September 1905 – 15 April 1990) was a Swedish-American actress. Regarded as one of the greatest screen actresses, she was known for her melancholic, somber persona, her film portrayals of tragedy, ...
, including '' Queen Christina'', ''
Conquest Conquest is the act of military subjugation of an enemy by force of arms. Military history provides many examples of conquest: the Roman conquest of Britain, the Mauryan conquest of Afghanistan and of vast areas of the Indian subcontinent, t ...
'', and her final film, ''
Two-Faced Woman ''Two-Faced Woman'' is a 1941 American romantic comedy film directed by George Cukor and starring Greta Garbo in her final film role, Melvyn Douglas, Constance Bennett, and Roland Young. The movie was distributed by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. Garbo pla ...
''. With Sonya Levien, he co-wrote the
screen play ''ScreenPlay'' is a television drama anthology series broadcast on BBC2 between 9 July 1986 and 27 October 1993. Background After single-play anthology series went off the air, the BBC introduced several showcases for made-for-television, fea ...
for the 1930 film version of Ferenc Molnár's ''
Liliom ''Liliom'' is a 1909 play by the Hungarian playwright Ferenc Molnár. It was well known in its own right during the early to mid-20th century, but is best known today as the basis for the Rodgers and Hammerstein 1945 musical ''Carousel''. P ...
'', starring Charles Farrell and Rose Hobart. His experiences in Hollywood found dramatic form in the play '' Let Me Hear the Melody'' (1951), a failure that closed in pre-Broadway tryouts. He also collaborated on the screenplays for ''Anna Karenina'' (1935), ''A Tale of Two Cities'' (1935), and ''Waterloo Bridge'' (1940). Berhman's comedies repeatedly celebrate tolerance, yet show how tolerant people in their generosity are often vulnerable when confronted by fanatics or ruthless opportunists. In '' End of Summer'', a liberal household is threatened by a devious psychoanalyst who is able to play upon the family's weaknesses in his desire for wealth and power. Behrman's protagonists often feel inadequate to deal with the evils and injustices in the world. The hero of '' No Time for Comedy'', a successful author of stylish comedies for his actress-wife, feels the need to write a serious play in response to the
Spanish Civil War The Spanish Civil War ( es, Guerra Civil Española)) or The Revolution ( es, La Revolución, link=no) among Nationalists, the Fourth Carlist War ( es, Cuarta Guerra Carlista, link=no) among Carlists, and The Rebellion ( es, La Rebelión, lin ...
. When he fails at this attempt, he resolves to go to Spain himself and fight. The play asks the question: Is there a place for comedy in a violent and unjust world? The protagonist of ''Biography'' laments a political landscape that is divided between left- and right-wing extremes, leaving little space for a tolerant, humane middle ground. Behrman's columns for ''
The New Yorker ''The New Yorker'' is an American weekly magazine featuring journalism, commentary, criticism, essays, fiction, satire, cartoons, and poetry. Founded as a weekly in 1925, the magazine is published 47 times annually, with five of these issues ...
'' included profiles of such notable figures as composer
George Gershwin George Gershwin (; born Jacob Gershwine; September 26, 1898 – July 11, 1937) was an American composer and pianist whose compositions spanned popular, jazz and classical genres. Among his best-known works are the orchestral compositions ' ...
, Hungarian playwright Ferenc Molnár, Zionist leader
Chaim Weizmann Chaim Azriel Weizmann ( he, חיים עזריאל ויצמן ', russian: Хаим Евзорович Вейцман, ''Khaim Evzorovich Veytsman''; 27 November 1874 – 9 November 1952) was a Russian-born biochemist, Zionist leader and Israel ...
and entertainer
Eddie Cantor Eddie Cantor (born Isidore Itzkowitz; January 31, 1892 – October 10, 1964) was an American comedian, actor, dancer, singer, songwriter, film producer, screenwriter and author. Familiar to Broadway, radio, movie, and early television audiences, ...
as well as longer pieces that became highly regarded biographies of writer and dandy
Max Beerbohm Sir Henry Maximilian Beerbohm (24 August 1872 – 20 May 1956) was an English essayist, parodist and caricaturist under the signature Max. He first became known in the 1890s as a dandy and a humorist. He was the drama critic for the '' Saturday ...
and art dealer Joseph Duveen. His autobiographical essays, also serialized in ''The New Yorker,'' appeared in two volumes, ''The Worcester Account'' (1955) and ''People in a Diary'' (1972). He was elected a Fellow of the
American Academy of Arts and Sciences The American Academy of Arts and Sciences (abbreviation: AAA&S) is one of the oldest learned societies in the United States. It was founded in 1780 during the American Revolution by John Adams, John Hancock, James Bowdoin, Andrew Oliver, and ...
in 1959. Behrman was known for his warm, witty personality and enjoyed good relations with many other writers, both in and out of the theater world. A newspaper interview he conducted with
Siegfried Sassoon Siegfried Loraine Sassoon (8 September 1886 – 1 September 1967) was an English war poet, writer, and soldier. Decorated for bravery on the Western Front, he became one of the leading poets of the First World War. His poetry both describ ...
, when the British poet was visiting New York after World War I, led to a lifelong friendship and many visits to Sassoon's country house when Behrman was in England. While not gay himself, Behrman was especially supportive of the tribulations of Sassoon's always turbulent love life. Work on dramatizing a short story by Somerset Maugham led to a relaxed, bantering relationship with that British writer as well and many visits to Maugham's home on the Riviera. Publisher Bennett Cerf repeatedly urged Behrman to write a biography of Maugham, feeling that he knew him as well as anyone. It was a project Behrman toyed with throughout the 1960s, but ultimately declined on the advice of ''New Yorker'' editor William Shawn. When in Italy, he was a welcome guest of Max Beerbohm, whose biography he wrote in 1960, four years after Beerbohm's death.


Major works

Behrman's two most anthologized plays, which continued to be revived in regional theaters through the twentieth century, are ''Biography'' (1932) and ''End of Summer'' (1936). Like many of Behrman's plays, they are character studies more than plot-filled dramas. ''Biography'' tells the story of Marion Froude, a noted portrait painter, who has been prevailed upon by an abrasive leftwing publisher, Richard Kurt, to write her serialized memoirs for his magazine. A former lover with senatorial aspirations, Leander Nolan, hopes to marry into a conservative, politically well-placed southern family. He wants Marion to abandon the project, fearing that he will be named in her book and his plans derailed. A liberal woman who has painted both Roman Catholic prelates and Lenin himself, Marion must choose (she destroys her manuscript in the end), but is ultimately alienated by both Kurt's proletarian rigidity and Leander's smug conservatism. ''Biography'' starred Ina Claire and ran on Broadway for 219 performances. ''End of Summer'' is about three women of different generations and values: forty-ish Leonie Frothingham, her elderly mother, and her nineteen-year-old daughter, Paula. The three women, insulated from the Depression and its harsh realities by their money, live in summer comfort on an estate in Maine. A visiting psychiatrist disrupts their complacency. He is attracted to both the divorced Leonie and her daughter but schemes to marry Leonie to gain control of her money, until his plan is revealed by Paula. Other characters, including a young man romantically attached to Paula and a Russian emigre-friend of the family, visit the house and talk about their lives, aspirations, and political leanings. Will, Paula's potential fiancé, cannot reconcile his activist politics with the thought of marrying into a family with so much money. One writer described ''End of Summer'' as "a Chekhovian play which emphasizes the disappearance or demise of an old, conservative order epresented by Leonie's motherand the emergence of the new, more radical way of American life." The play also starred Ina Claire and ran on Broadway for 153 performances. ''People in a Diary'' (1972), a memoir, could also be regarded as a major Behrman work and a well-crafted example of its genre. Published eighteen years after his first memoir, ''The Worcester Account,'' it is a collection of autobiographical essays and sketches culled from the sixty volumes of diaries Behrman had been keeping since his time at Harvard in 1915. "An odd quirk of destiny has put a great many people in my way," he wrote in a significant understatement, declaring that his purpose in the book was to "revive their society" and the vibrant times they had shared. The cast of characters in ''People in a Diary'' gives an idea of the breadth and depth of Behrman's life: e.g., Greta Garbo, Laurence Olivier, Louis B. Mayer, Jean Giradoux, Somerset Maugham, Eugene O'Neill, Noël Coward, Maxwell Anderson, Elmer Rice, Sidney Howard, Felix Frankfurter, Bernard Berenson, the Gershwins, and the Marx Brothers. The book also contains some biting observations about the direction modern America had taken in the 1960s as it waged war in Vietnam and became more obsessed with money and imperial ambitions.


Death

S. N. Behrman died in 1973 at the age of eighty. He was survived by his wife, Elza Heifetz Behrman, the sister of violinist Jascha Heifetz, whom he had married in his forties, and a son. His stepdaughter was
Barbara Gelb Barbara Gelb (; February 6, 1926 – February 9, 2017) was an American author, playwright, and journalist. She, along with her husband Arthur, wrote three biographies of the Nobel laureate playwright Eugene O'Neill. Background Barbara Stone ...
, the biographer, along with her husband,
Arthur Gelb Arthur Gelb (February 3, 1924 – May 20, 2014) was an American editor, author and executive and was the managing editor of ''The New York Times'' from 1986 to 1989. Career Gelb began working the night shift at ''The Times'' as a c ...
, of
Eugene O'Neill Eugene Gladstone O'Neill (October 16, 1888 – November 27, 1953) was an American playwright and Nobel laureate in literature. His poetically titled plays were among the first to introduce into the U.S. the drama techniques of realism, earlier ...
.Joseph Berger,

, ''New York Times'', 9 February 2017
Brooks Atkinson wrote of Behrman, " isethical and political principles have never been appreciated. It is an ancient rule that prizes are not given to comic plays about serious subjects. The court jester invariably ranks with dilettantes and flaneurs." In Atkinson's view, this "short, rounded, merry, owlish-looking...marvelously erudite and civilized" man was far more than merely a writer of Broadway entertainments. His widow died in 1998 aged 92.


Bibliography


Plays

* ''Bedside Manners'' (1923), with J. Kenyon Nicholson * ''A Night's Work'' (1924), with Nicholson * ''The Man Who Forgot'' (1926), with
Owen Davis Owen Gould Davis (January 29, 1874 – October 14, 1956) was an American dramatist known for writing more than 200 plays and having most produced. In 1919, he became the first elected president of the Dramatists Guild of America. He received t ...
* ''The Second Man'' (1927) * ''Love Is Like That'' (1927), with Nicholson * ''Serena Blandish'' (or ''The Difficulty of Getting Married'')(1929) * ''Meteor'' (1929) * ''Brief Moment'' (1931) * ''
Biography A biography, or simply bio, is a detailed description of a person's life. It involves more than just the basic facts like education, work, relationships, and death; it portrays a person's experience of these life events. Unlike a profile or ...
'' (1932) * ''Love Story'' (1933) * ''Rain From Heaven'' (1934) * ''End of Summer'' (1936) * '' Amphitryon 38'' (1937) * ''Wine of Choice'' (1938) * '' No Time for Comedy'' (1939) * ''The Talley Method'' (1941) * ''The Pirate'' (1942) * ''Jacobowsky and the Colonel'' (1944) * ''Dunnigan's Daughter'' (1945) * ''
Jane Jane may refer to: * Jane (given name), a feminine given name * Jane (surname), related to the given name Film and television * ''Jane'' (1915 film), a silent comedy film directed by Frank Lloyd * ''Jane'' (2016 film), a South Korean drama fil ...
'' (1946) * ''I Know My Love'' (1949) * ''Let Me Hear the Melody'' (1951) * ''Fanny'' (musical) (1954), with
Joshua Logan Joshua Lockwood Logan III (October 5, 1908 – July 12, 1988) was an American director, writer, and actor. He shared a Pulitzer Prize for co-writing the musical '' South Pacific'' and was involved in writing other musicals. Early years Logan ...
* ''The Cold Wind and the Warm'' (1958) * ''Lord Pengo'' (1962) * ''But For Whom Charlie'' (1964)


Books

* ''Duveen: The Story of the Most Spectacular Art Dealer of All Time. '' (1952) * ''The Worcester Account'' (1955) * ''Portrait of Max: An Intimate Memoir of Sir Max Beerbohm'' (1960) * ''People in a Diary: A Memoir'' (1972)


Screenplays

* ''He Knew Women'' (1930) * ''
Liliom ''Liliom'' is a 1909 play by the Hungarian playwright Ferenc Molnár. It was well known in its own right during the early to mid-20th century, but is best known today as the basis for the Rodgers and Hammerstein 1945 musical ''Carousel''. P ...
'' (1930), with Sonya Levien * ''Lightning'' (1930), with Levien * ''The Sea-Wolf'' (1930) * '' The Brat'' (1931), with Levien * '' Surrender'' (1931), with Levien * ''
Daddy Long Legs A father is the male parent of a child. Besides the paternal bonds of a father to his children, the father may have a parental, legal, and social relationship with the child that carries with it certain rights and obligations. An adoptive fathe ...
'' (1931), with Levien * ''
Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm ''Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm'' is a classic American 1903 children's novel by Kate Douglas Wiggin that tells the story of Rebecca Rowena Randall and her aunts, one stern and one kind, in the fictional village of Riverboro, Maine. Rebecca's joy ...
'' (1932), with Levien * '' Tess of the Storm Country'' (1932), with Levien and Rupert Highes * ''Brief Moment'' (1933) * ''
Hallelujah, I'm a Bum "Hallelujah, I'm a Bum" (Roud 7992) is an American folk song, that responds with humorous sarcasm to unhelpful moralizing about the circumstance of being a hobo. "Hallelujah! I'm A Bum" Was the Marching Song of the IWW. (Harry McClintock son ...
'' (1933) * ''As Husbands Go'' (1933) * ''My Lips Betray'' (1933) * '' Queen Christina'' (1933) * ''Biography of a Bachelor Girl'' (1934) * '' Anna Karenina'' (1935) * '' A Tale of Two Cities'' (1935) * ''
Conquest Conquest is the act of military subjugation of an enemy by force of arms. Military history provides many examples of conquest: the Roman conquest of Britain, the Mauryan conquest of Afghanistan and of vast areas of the Indian subcontinent, t ...
'' (1937) * '' Parnell'' (1937) * '' The Cowboy and the Lady'' (1938) * '' No Time for Comedy'' (1940) * '' Waterloo Bridge'' (1940) * ''
Two-Faced Woman ''Two-Faced Woman'' is a 1941 American romantic comedy film directed by George Cukor and starring Greta Garbo in her final film role, Melvyn Douglas, Constance Bennett, and Roland Young. The movie was distributed by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. Garbo pla ...
(1941) * '' The Pirate'' (1948) * ''
Quo Vadis ''Quō vādis?'' (, ) is a Latin phrase meaning "Where are you marching?". It is also commonly translated as "Where are you going?" or, poetically, "Whither goest thou?" The phrase originates from the Christian tradition regarding Saint Pete ...
'' (1951) * '' Me and the Colonel'' (1958) * '' Fanny'' (1961) * ''Stowaway in the Sky'' (1962)


References


Sources

*Atkinson, Brooks. ''Broadway.'' New York: Atheneum, 1970. *Gross, Robert F. ''S. N. Behrman: A Research and Production Sourcebook.'' Greenwich, CT: Greenwood Press, 1992. * Mordden, Ethan. ''All That Glittered: The Golden Age of Drama on Broadway, 1919-1959.'' New York: St. Martin's Press, 2007. *Reed, Kenneth T. ''S. N. Behrman.'' Twayne Publishers, 1975.


External links


S. N. Behrman Papers
at the
New York Public Library The New York Public Library (NYPL) is a public library system in New York City. With nearly 53 million items and 92 locations, the New York Public Library is the second largest public library in the United States (behind the Library of Congress ...

S. N. Behrman Papers
at the Harry Ransom Center
S. N. Behrman Papers
at the Wisconsin Center for Film and Theater Research * *
S. N. Behrman Biography, Photos and Works

SNBehrman.com
– An electronic archive including plays {{DEFAULTSORT:Behrman, S. N. 1893 births 1973 deaths 20th-century American dramatists and playwrights Writers from Worcester, Massachusetts Harvard University alumni Columbia University alumni Fellows of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences Writers from Massachusetts Jewish American dramatists and playwrights American people of Lithuanian-Jewish descent 20th-century American Jews Members of the American Academy of Arts and Letters