Kaufman, George S.

▪ American playwright and journalist

born Nov. 16, 1889, Pittsburgh, Pa., U.S.

died June 2, 1961, New York, N.Y.

      American playwright and journalist, who became the stage director of most of his plays and musical comedies after the mid-1920s. He was the most successful craftsman of the American theatre in the era between World Wars I and II, and many of his plays were Broadway hits.

      After attending public school in Pittsburgh and Paterson, N.J., Kaufman found himself miscast as a salesman. He contributed to the satirical column run by Franklin P. Adams (Adams, Franklin Pierce) (“F.P.A.”) in the New York Evening Mail and, in 1912, on Adams' recommendation, was given a column of his own in the Washington Times. He was a drama critic for The New York Times from 1917 to 1930.

      His first successful play, written in collaboration with Marc Connelly (Connelly, Marc), was Dulcy (first performed 1921), a comedy based on a central character of Adams' column. The Butter and Egg Man (1925), a satire on theatrical production, was the only play that Kaufman wrote alone. His plays with Connelly included Beggar on Horseback (1924), an Expressionist satire on the inefficiency of efficiency, and Merton of the Movies (1922), one of the first satires on Hollywood. Among his other collaborations were Of Thee I Sing (1931), a musical-comedy satire on politics with Morrie Ryskind and Ira Gershwin (with music by George Gershwin); Dinner at Eight (1932) and The Land Is Bright (1941) with Edna Ferber; The Solid Gold Cadillac (1953) with Howard Teichmann; and a number of memorable successes with Moss Hart that included Once in a Lifetime (1930), You Can't Take It with You (1936), and The Man Who Came to Dinner (1939).

      Kaufman was twice winner of the Pulitzer Prize for plays of which he was coauthor. His range was wide, varying in tone with his collaborators, but brilliant satire and caustic wit were his forte. He was often called in to revise other authors' plays in last-minute efforts to get them in shape for production.

Additional Reading

Scott Meredith, George S. Kaufman and His Friends (1974); Malcolm Goldstein, George S. Kaufman: His Life, His Theater (1979); Roda-Gale Pollack, George S. Kaufman (1988); Jeffrey D. Mason, Wisecracks: The Farces of George S. Kaufman (1988).

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