Bissell, Richard

▪ American writer

born June 27, 1913, Dubuque, Iowa, U.S.

died May 4, 1977, Dubuque

      U.S. novelist and playwright whose works provide fresh and witty images of Middle Western speech and folkways.

      Bissell grew up in Dubuque, attended Phillips Exeter Academy, and graduated from Harvard in 1936. From his experiences as a mate and then a pilot on the Mississippi, Ohio, and Monongahela rivers came the novels A Stretch on the River (1950) and The Monongahela (1952). His first really successful novel was 7¹⁄₂ Cents (1953; British title A Gross of Pyjamas), based on his experiences as a supervisor in a pajama factory in Dubuque. In collaboration with George Abbott, he turned 7¹⁄₂ Cents into a musical, The Pajama Game (1954), which had a long run on Broadway and was made into a motion picture in 1957. From his experiences in the theatre he produced a novel, Say, Darling (1957), which he then wrote as a musical under the same title (1958), in collaboration with his wife, Marian Bissell, and Abe Burrows. Among his later books are the novels Good Bye, Ava (1960) and Still Circling Moose Jaw (1965). His last novel, New Light on 1776 and All That (1975), is a satire of the American Revolution.

* * *