Robert e sherwood biography
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Robert E. Sherwood
"This is a richly textured treatment of one of America's most honored yet long-forgotten playwrights, Robert E. Sherwood, who also helped provide a model of the public intellectual."—Journal of American History
"Alonso's highly readable Robert E. Sherwood: The Playwright in Peace and War stands out for its timely themes: politics and international conflict. . . . Alonso . . . is particularly concerned with the swelling and ebbing of Sherwood's pacifism. Turned anti-military by World War I (he was gassed in the French trenches), the playwright experiences a "sea change" in opinion during the rise of fascism. Fortunately, Alonso's attention to this particular issue doesn't blinker the wider view: She channels her pacifism-related expertise into a comprehensive and authoritative consideration of Sherwoods's life as a whole."—American Theatre
"Alonso's engagingly written study is a welcome and original addtion to the field in that she provides a thorough sing•
Robert E. Sherwood (Robert Emmet Sherwood) Biography
Americandramatist, born in New Rochelle, New York State, educated at Harvard, where he followed George Pierce Baker's course in the history of the theatre. His successful first play, The Road to Rome (1927), shows Hannibal turning away from his march on Rome, an anti-war gesture designed to express Sherwood's disillusion with the international politics which had led to the First World War. Sherwood's most successful period as a playwright was in the 1930s, with Reunion in Vienna (1931), The Petrified Forest (1935), Idiot's Delight (1936, for which he won the first of his four Pulitzer Prizes), Abe Lincoln in Illinois (1938), and There Shall Be No Night (1940). With S. N. Behrman and others, Sherwood was a founder member of the Playwrights' Company (1938), designed to set high standards of writing and production in the contemporary theatre. His play Waterloo Bridge (1930), about an English prostitute who preserves
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Spartacus Educational
Robert Emmet Sherwood, the son of Arthur Murray Sherwood, a rich stockbroker, and his wife, the former Rosina Emmet, was born in New Rochelle on 4th April 1896. He was a great-grandnephew of the Irish nationalist Robert Emmet who was executed for high treason in 1803.
Sherwood's mother had been a student at the Arts Students League before becoming a successful artist whose illustrations had appeared in magazines, including Harper's Weekly and Century Magazine. She also provided the artwork for several children's book.
Rosina had married late in life and did not start a family until she was 33 years old. She had fem children: Arthur (1888), Cynthia (1889), Philip (1891), Robert (1896) and Rosamund (1899). His father was a very successful stockbroker and the family enjoyed a privileged life. This included owning a summer house near Lake Champlain and the employment of several servants. Robert was a very tall child and after hearing about the