S. N. Behrman

Behrman, S[amuel] N[athaniel] (1893–1973), playwright. Born in Worcester, Massachusetts, he studied at Clark University before enrolling in Professor George P. Baker's 47 Workshop at Harvard. Behrman worked as book reviewer, play reader, and press agent before he turned to playwriting. His first two efforts, written with others, never reached New York, but he scored with his first solo effort, The Second Man (1927). Behrman found little success with Love Is Like That (1927), Serena Blandish (1929), Meteor (1929), and Brief Moment (1931), but he triumphed with what is considered his finest work: Biography (1932). Somewhat less successful were Rain from Heaven (1934) and End of Summer (1936). In 1937 he adapted Jean Giraudoux's Amphitryon 38 for the Lunts, but in the following year came a cropper with Wine of Choice. Another high point in Behrman's career was No Time for Comedy (1939), but his serious drama The Talley Method (1941) did not run. Returning to comedy and to the Lunts, he scored a popular success with The Pirate (1942). A second comic adaptation, from Franz Werfel, won favor as Jacobowsky and the Colonel (1944), a saga of a Jewish refugee and an anti‐Semitic Polish colonel together fleeing the Nazis. His drama Dunnigan's Daughter (1945) and character study Jane (1947), based on a Somerset Maugham story, could not find an audience, while an adaptation of Marcel Achard's Auprès de Ma Blonde as I Know My Love (1949) ran largely on the appeal of the Lunts. After two attempts that closed out of town, Behrman had a hit when he co‐wrote the libretto for Fanny (1954) with Joshua Logan. In 1958 he offered The Cold Wind and the Warm, a semi‐autobiographical look at Jewish life in his hometown at the turn of the century, and in 1962 wrote Lord Pengo, which was loosely based on his biography of the famous art dealer Duveen. Berhman's last play, which he called a “serious comedy,” was But for Whom Charlie (1964), which depicted the exploitation of a selfless philanthropist. Like those of his closest rival in the field of high comedy, Philip Barry, Behrman's writings were marked by a distinctive dichotomy. But whereas Barry's best work drew strength from his interweaving of wit and despair, Behrman's sometimes profited and sometimes was hurt by his unique mixture of brilliant, high social comedy and increasingly strong political (leftish) colorings. Joseph Wood Krutch observed in Literary History of the United States, “Faced with the problem of writing comedy in an atmosphere which many are ready to say makes comedy either impossible or impertinent, he thus invented something which might not improperly be called the comedy of illumination.” Autobiography: People in a Diary, 1972; biography: S. N. Behrman, K. Reed, 1975.

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Behrman, S. N. (Samuel Nathaniel Behrman) (bâr'mən), 1893–1973, American dramatist, b. Worcester, Mass., grad. Harvard 1916. His sophisticated comedies often attempt to probe the consciences of the wealthy and privileged. They include The Second Man (1927), Rain from Heaven (1934), No Time for Comedy (1939), Fanny (1954) with Joshua Logan, and Lord Pengo (1962). His books include an autobiography, The Worcester Account (1954), and a biography of Max Beerbohm (1960).

1893–1973.

American playwright whose works include The Second Man (1927) and No Time for Comedy (1939).

(1893-1973)

1927	The Second Man. The first solo effort and initial success of the playwright, who would be called the "American Congreve" for his witty comedies of manners, concerns a novelist whose marriage plans go awry when a former lover reveals her pregnancy.
1929	Serena Blandish and Meteor. The first of the playwright's two 1929 offerings is based on a novel by British author Enid Bagnold (1889-1981), about London high life; the second concerns a ruthless businessman.
1931	Brief Moment. This comedy about a young patrician's desire to marry a nightclub singer features a specially written role for dramatic critic and essayist Alexander Woollcott as a wisecracking onlooker, a possible source of inspiration for the comedy The Man Who Came to Dinner (1939), by Kaufman and Hart.
1932	Biography. Regarded as the playwright's best comedy, the drama concerns the various loves of a fashionable portrait painter whose decision to write her memoir causes consternation among her present and former liaisons. The sophisticated comedy of manners bristles with the author's brilliant dialogue.
1934	Rain from Heaven. The playwright tackles current events in this drama about a love affair between an English aristocrat and a Jewish refugee from the Nazis. Behrman's characteristic witty brilliance is lacking, replaced by a preachy high-mindedness.
1936	End of Summer. Behrman's sophisticated social comedy dramatizes the impact on a rich matriarch when her daughter accepts a young radical suitor.
1938	Wine of Choice. Behrman's social comedy concerns a women courted by several men, including a young left-wing writer.
1939	No Time for Comedy. Considered by many the playwright's greatest achievement, the play concerns a popular author of light comedies (much like Behrman himself) who wishes to write about serious subjects.
1941	The Talley Method. A social problem comedy concerning a talented surgeon's lack of humanity.
1944	Jacobowsky and the Colonel. Behrman has a popular success adapting Franz Werfel's comedy about a Jew and an anti-Semitic Polish officer during the fall of France.
1945	Dunnigan's Daughter. Behrman's departure from a string of social comedies is a drama about a ruthless businessman in Mexico whose true identity is finally revealed to his wife.
1955	Fanny. The season's biggest hit is this musical about a Marseille café owner whose son leaves a young woman pregnant and unwed.
1958	The Cold Wind and the Warm. Behrman's drama is an autobiographical work about Jewish life in a small town at the turn of the century.

Quotes:

"I have just about all I can take of myself."

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