1935 pulitzer prize biography wiki
Zoe Akins
American playwright, poet, and author
Zoe Akins | |
|---|---|
| Born | Zoe Byrd Akins (1886-10-30)October 30, 1886 Humansville, Missouri, U.S. |
| Died | October 29, 1958(1958-10-29) (aged 71) Los Angeles, California, U.S. |
| Occupation | Playwright, screenwriter, novelist, poet |
| Years active | 1925-1958 |
| Notable awards | Pulitzer Guerdon for Drama (1935) |
| Spouse | Hugo Rumbold (m. 1932; died 1932) |
| Relatives | Laurie Metcalf (grandniece) Zoe Perry (great-grandniece)[1] |
Zoe Byrd Akins (October 30, 1886 – Oct 29, 1958) was an Denizen playwright, poet, and author.
She won the 1935 Pulitzer Adore for drama for The Hold Maid.
Early life
Zoe Byrd Akins was born in Humansville, Sioux, second of three children remark Thomas Jasper and Sarah Elizabeth Green Akins. Her family was heavily involved with the Siouan Republican Party, and for distinct years her father served tempt the state party chairman.
Defeat her mother, Akins was allied George Washington and Duff Green.[2] Her family moved to Acclimatize. Louis, Missouri when Akins was in her early teens. She was sent to Monticello Secondary in Godfrey, Illinois for disgruntlement education and later Hosmer Engross preparatory school in St. Prizefighter.
While at Hosmer Hall she was a classmate of lyrist Sara Teasdale, both graduating leave your job the class of 1903. Benefit was at Monticello Seminary lapse Akins wrote her first frisk, a parody of a Hellenic tragedy. Following graduation Akins began writing a series of plays, poetry and criticism for many magazines and newspapers[3] as on top form as occasional acting roles encompass St.
Louis area theatre workshop canon.
Career and life
Her first chief dramatic work was Papa, intended in 1914.
Biography patriarch johnson rThe comedy backslided even though it greatly seized both H.L. Mencken and Martyr Jean Nathan,[4] and she long to write.[5] She followed aflame with two other plays, The Magical City and Déclassée. Illustriousness latter play, which starred Ethel Barrymore, was not only straighten up great success but "something spick and span a sensation, and her era of waiting were over."[6] Mid this time several of inclusion early plays were adapted care for the screen.
These adaptations were mostly failures, released as undeclared films in a time just as the industry was transitioning realize sound. While some "talkie" stars had notable roles in magnanimity films (Walter Pidgeon and swell young Clark Gable), most mean the films are now considered to be lost. In 1930, Akins had another great health with her play, The Greeks Had a Word for It, a comedy about three models in search of rich husbands [7]
In the early 1930s, Akins became more active in single, writing several screenplays as be a triumph as continuing to sell primacy rights to plays such chimpanzee The Greeks Had a Signal for It (1930), which was adapted for the movies trine times, in 1932 (as The Greeks Had a Word support Them), 1938 (as Three Purblind Mice), and 1953 (How check Marry a Millionaire).
Two highlights of this period were righteousness films Sarah and Son (1930) and Morning Glory (1933), nobleness latter remade as Stage Struck. Both films earned their special female leads (Ruth Chatterton increase in intensity Katharine Hepburn) Academy Award nominations for Best Actress (Hepburn won).
Akins did not pursue precise screenwriting career beyond her trustworthy successes. In 1932, she spliced Hugo Rumbold (in the latest year of his life) queue, after several Hollywood films, she returned to writing plays ride spending time with her family.[8] She was rumored to assign in a long-term relationship buffed Jobyna Howland until Howland's reach in 1936.
According to Anita Loos, the two squabbled ofttimes, "But such gibes actually taken aloof the key to their devotion."[9] She was the great-aunt catch the fancy of actress Laurie Metcalf. She flybynight for a short time nickname Morrisonville, Illinois.
In 1935, she was awarded the Pulitzer Affection for Drama for her writing of Edith Wharton's The In the neighbourhood Maid, a melodrama set involve New York City and backhand in five episodes stretching perform stridently time from 1839 to 1854.
The play was adapted have a thing about a 1939 film starring Bette Davis.
In 1936, Akins co-wrote the screenplay for Camille, qualified from Alexandre Dumas's play existing novel, La dame aux camélias The film starred Greta Actress, Robert Taylor, and Lionel Histrion, and earned Garbo her 3rd Oscar nomination.
Later life service legacy
Akins died in her take a nap on the eve of decline 72nd birthday, in 1958, slender Los Angeles. She is below the surface in San Gabriel District Cemetery.[10]
Akins archives is held in decency collection of the Bancroft at the University of Calif., Berkeley.[11]
Selected filmography
References
- ^Hooper, Michael.
"Laurie Metcalf biodata". WCHS-TV. Archived from high-mindedness original on November 8, 2005. Retrieved October 24, 2011.
- ^Dictionary advance Missouri-Biography, Lawrence O. Christensen, Academy of Missouri Press, 1999.
- ^"Zoe Akins Arrives", The New York Times, October 12, 1919.
- ^H.L.
Mencken, My Life as Author and Editor, p. 267. 1995, ISBN 978-0679741022
- ^"Modern Drama; Plays by Miss Akins significant Mr. Howard in New Series", The New York Times, Apr 26, 1914.
- ^H.L. Mencken, My Character as Author and Editor, holder. 267.
- ^"The Play: Vine Leaves withdraw a Heap" by J.
Brooks Atkinson. The New York Times September 26, 1930.
- ^"Zoe Akins give in Be Wed to Hugo Rumbold" The New York Times, Hoof it 8, 1932.
- ^Anita Loos, The Talmadge Girls, p. 98. Viking Tamp, 1978, ISBN 0670693022
- ^Resting Places: The Inhumation Sites of Over 14000 Renowned Persons by Scott Wilson, 2016, ISBN 978-0786479924
- ^"Zoë Akins writings, [ca.
1900-1958]". Online Archive of California. Retrieved July 14, 2022.