![]() Members included Dorothy Parker, Robert Benchley, Robert Sherwood, and Alexander Woollcott. Kaufman's mentor was Franklin Pierce Adams, who helped Kaufman secure early writing jobs at the Washington Times in 1912, and the New York Tribune in 1914.Īrtistic Community Kaufman was an original member of the Algonquin Round Table, a circle of writers and critics who met at the Algonquin Hotel in New York from 1919 until the end of the 1920s. ![]() Teachers and Influences George Kaufman greatly admired the works of Mark Twain. Kaufman.Įducation Kaufman attended Western University of Pennsylvania, School of Law for three months in 1907. Hart expressed his gratitude in the eulogy he delivered at Kaufman's funeral, citing his own- and all of American theater's- "incalculable debt" to George S. Beginning with the stunningly popular Once in a Lifetime in 1930, they wrote eight plays together, including, most notably, the Pulitzer-Prize-winning You Can't Take It With You (1936), as well as The Man Who Came to Dinner (1939) and George Washington Slept Here (1940). Fifteen years younger than Kaufman, Hart revered him more than his own father. Kaufman, in turn, offered his collaborators the benefit of his enduring sharpness.Īmong Kaufman's many collaborators, the ebullient young playwright from the Bronx, Moss Hart, was his favorite. Confessing that he needed company when locked in a room with a blank piece of paper, Kaufman may have also preferred collaboration because it gave him the opportunity to bounce ideas off his partner. ![]() Indeed, Kaufman only wrote two of his 40 (plus) plays alone. Kaufman teamed up with a range of celebrated playwrights and composers, including Marc Connely, Moss Hart, the Gershwins, Rodgers and Hart, and Edna Ferber, to create some of the most memorable plays of his day. Known as "the great collaborator," George S. He was a renowned "play doctor," yet he often took no credit for work that he helped to shape. Both his private and professional lives were marked by quiet generosity. He was a prominent member of the famed Algonquin Round Table, a colorful group of writers that dominated New York's cultural scene in the 1920s. He also served as drama editor for the New York Times from 1917 to 1930 and wrote articles for a variety of publications, including The New Yorker and The Nation. Kaufman was a distinguished director who directed many of his own plays, as well as productions by others, including, The Front Page (1928), Of Mice and Men (1937), and Guys and Dolls (1950). Kaufman also directed and played a featured role in this comedy. ![]() His favorite partner was Moss Hart, with whom he first collaborated on Once In A Lifetime (1930). Known as a consummate collaborator, he penned all but two of his 40 (plus) plays with other writers, including Edna Ferber, Marc Connelly, George and Ira Gershwin, Richard Rodgers and Lorenz Hart.Īmong these plays, his most renowned include Of Thee I Sing (1931, Pulitzer Prize), You Can't Take it With You (1936, Pulitzer Prize), and The Man Who Came to Dinner (1939). Kaufman was one of Broadway's most successful playwrights. Called a "founding father of the American popular theater," George S. ![]()
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