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 David Behrman (born August 16, 1937) is an American composer and a pioneer of computer music. In the early 1960s he was the producer of Columbia Records' ''Music of Our Time'' series, which included the first recording of Terry Riley's ''In C''. ...

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 ce ...

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 Eli Herschel Wallach (; December 7, 1915 – June 24, 2014) was an American film, television, and stage actor from New York City. From his 1945 Broadway debut to his last film appearance, Wallach's entertainment career spanned 65 years. Origina ...

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 centuryas 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. 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 188 ...

, 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 George Meredith (12 February 1828 – 18 May 1909) was an English novelist and poet of the Victorian era. At first his focus was poetry, influenced by John Keats among others, but he gradually established a reputation as a novelist. '' The Ord ...

'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. 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 th ...

, and wrote for such stars as Ina Claire, Katharine Cornell,

Jane Cowl Jane Cowl (December 14, 1883 – June 22, 1950) was an American film and stage actress and playwright "notorious for playing lachrymose parts". Actress Jane Russell was named in Cowl's honor. Biography Cowl was born Jane Bailey in Boston, Mas ...

, 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 and West End productions. After th ...

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 theatre, West End, she met the American actor Alfred Lunt, whom she married in 1922 and with whom she co-starred i ...

, 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 Elmer Rice (born Elmer Leopold Reizenstein, September 28, 1892 – May 8, 1967) was an American playwright. He is best known for his plays ''The Adding Machine'' (1923) and his Pulitzer Prize-winning drama of New York tenement life, '' Street Sce ...

Maxwell Anderson James Maxwell Anderson (December 15, 1888 – February 28, 1959) was an American playwright, author, poet, journalist, and lyricist. Background Anderson was born on December 15, 1888, in Atlantic, Pennsylvania, the second of eight children to ...

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 ...

, and

Sidney Howard Sidney Coe Howard (June 26, 1891 – August 23, 1939) was an American playwright, dramatist and screenwriter. He received the Pulitzer Prize for Drama in 1925 and a posthumous Academy Award in 1940 for the screenplay for ''Gone with the Wind''. ...

, 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 Enid Algerine Bagnold, Lady Jones, (27 October 1889 – 31 March 1981) was a British writer and playwright known for the 1935 story ''National Velvet''. Early life Enid Algerine Bagnold was born on 27 October 1889 in Rochester, Kent, daughte ...

's novel '' Serena Blandish'' 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 wo ...

and

Marcel Achard Marcel Achard (5 July 1899 – 4 September 1974) was a French playwright and screenwriter whose popular sentimental comedies Garzanti p. 3 maintained his position as a highly recognizable name in his country's theatrical and literary circles ...

and " Jane," 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, 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 fashionabl ...

'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 tragic ch ...

, including '' Queen Christina'', '' Conquest'', and her final film, '' Two-Faced Woman''. With Sonya Levien, he co-wrote the screen play for the 1930 film version of

Ferenc Molnár Ferenc Molnár ( , ; born Ferenc Neumann; 12 January 18781 April 1952), often anglicized as Franz Molnar, was a Hungarian-born author, stage-director, dramatist, and poet, widely regarded as Hungary’s most celebrated and controversial play ...

'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 Charles David Farrell (August 9, 1900 – May 6, 1990) was an American film actor of the 1920s silent era and into the 1930s, and later a television actor. Farrell is probably best recalled for his onscreen romances with actress Janet Gaynor ...

and

Rose Hobart Rose Hobart (born Rose Kefer; May 1, 1906 – August 29, 2000) was an American actress and a Screen Actors Guild official. Early years Born in New York City, Hobart was the daughter of a cellist in the New York Symphony Orchestra, Paul Ke ...

. 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 ''No Time for Comedy'' is a 1940 American comedy-drama film based on the play of the same name by S. N. Behrman, starring James Stewart, Rosalind Russell, Genevieve Tobin and Charlie Ruggles. Plot summary Gaylord Esterbrook (Stewart), a reporte ...

'', 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, link ...

. 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 ''

'' 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

, 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 Israe ...

and entertainer Eddie Cantor 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 '' Saturd ...

and art dealer

Joseph Duveen Joseph Duveen, 1st Baron Duveen (14 October 1869 – 25 May 1939), known as Sir Joseph Duveen, Baronet, between 1927 and 1933, was a British art dealer who was considered one of the most influential art dealers of all time. Life and career Jos ...

. 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, a ...

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, 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 Jascha Heifetz (; December 10, 1987) was a Russian-born American violinist. Born in Vilnius, he moved while still a teenager to the United States, where his Carnegie Hall debut was rapturously received. He was a virtuoso since childhood. Fritz ...

, whom he had married in his forties, and a son. His stepdaughter was Barbara Gelb, the biographer, along with her husband, Arthur Gelb, of

Eugene O'Neill Eugene Gladstone O'Neill (October 16, 1888 – November 27, 1953) was an American playwright and Nobel laureate in Nobel Prize in Literature, literature. His poetically titled plays were among the first to introduce into the U.S. the drama tech ...

.Joseph Berger,

, ''New York Times'', 9 February 2017

Brooks Atkinson Justin Brooks Atkinson (November 28, 1894 – January 14, 1984) was an American theatre critic. He worked for '' The New York Times'' from 1922 to 1960. In his obituary, the ''Times'' called him "the theater's most influential reviewer of hi ...

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 * ''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 ''Amphitryon 38'' is a play written in 1929 by the French dramatist Jean Giraudoux, the number in the title being Giraudoux's whimsical approximation of how many times the story had been told on stage previously. Original productions ''Amphitryon ...

'' (1937) * ''Wine of Choice'' (1938) * ''

'' (1939) * ''The Talley Method'' (1941) * ''The Pirate'' (1942) * ''Jacobowsky and the Colonel'' (1944) * ''Dunnigan's Daughter'' (1945) * '' Jane'' (1946) * ''I Know My Love'' (1949) * ''Let Me Hear the Melody'' (1951) * ''Fanny'' (musical) (1954), with Joshua 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) * ''

'' (1930), with Sonya Levien * ''Lightning'' (1930), with Levien * ''The Sea-Wolf'' (1930) * ''

The Brat ''The Brat'' is a 1931 American Pre-Code comedy film directed by John Ford, starring Sally O'Neil, and featuring Virginia Cherrill. The film is based on the 1917 play by Maude Fulton. A previous silent film had been made in 1919 with Alla Nazim ...

'' (1931), with Levien * ''

Surrender Surrender may refer to: * Surrender (law), the early relinquishment of a tenancy * Surrender (military), the relinquishment of territory, combatants, facilities, or armaments to another power Film and television * ''Surrender'' (1927 film), an ...

'' (1931), with Levien * '' Daddy Long Legs'' (1931), with Levien * '' Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm'' (1932), with Levien * '' Tess of the Storm Country'' (1932), with Levien and Rupert Highes * ''Brief Moment'' (1933) * '' Hallelujah, I'm a Bum'' (1933) * ''As Husbands Go'' (1933) * ''My Lips Betray'' (1933) * '' Queen Christina'' (1933) * ''Biography of a Bachelor Girl'' (1934) * ''

Anna Karenina ''Anna Karenina'' ( rus, «Анна Каренина», p=ˈanːə kɐˈrʲenʲɪnə) is a novel by the Russian author Leo Tolstoy, first published in book form in 1878. Widely considered to be one of the greatest works of literature ever writt ...

'' (1935) * ''

A Tale of Two Cities ''A Tale of Two Cities'' is a historical novel published in 1859 by Charles Dickens, set in London and Paris before and during the French Revolution. The novel tells the story of the French Doctor Manette, his 18-year-long imprisonment in ...

'' (1935) * '' Conquest'' (1937) * '' Parnell'' (1937) * '' The Cowboy and the Lady'' (1938) * ''

'' (1940) * ''

Waterloo Bridge Waterloo Bridge () is a road and foot traffic bridge crossing the River Thames in London, between Blackfriars Bridge and Hungerford Bridge and Golden Jubilee Bridges. Its name commemorates the victory of the British, Dutch and Prussians at t ...

'' (1940) * '' Two-Faced Woman (1941) * '' The Pirate'' (1948) * '' Quo Vadis'' (1951) * ''

Me and the Colonel ''Me and the Colonel'' is a 1958 American comedy film based on the play ''Jacobowsky und der Oberst'' by Franz Werfel. It was directed by Peter Glenville and stars Danny Kaye, Curd Jürgens and Nicole Maurey. Kaye won a Golden Globe Award for ...

'' (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
S. N. Behrman Papers
at the

Harry Ransom Center The Harry Ransom Center (until 1983 the Humanities Research Center) is an archive, library and museum at the University of Texas at Austin, specializing in the collection of literary and cultural artifacts from the Americas and Europe for the pur ...

S. N. Behrman Papers
at the

Wisconsin Center for Film and Theater Research The Wisconsin Center for Film and Theater Research (WCFTR) is a major archive of motion picture, television, radio, and theater research materials. Located in the headquarters building of the Wisconsin Historical Society in Madison, Wisconsin, the ...

* *
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