Edward Sheldon

Edward Sheldon
Edward Sheldon in 1914
Born	February 4, 1886 Chicago, Illinois, U.S.
Died	April 1, 1946 (aged 60) (lymphatic cancer) New York City, New York, U.S.
Occupation	playwright
Nationality	American

Edward Brewster Sheldon ( Chicago, Illinois, February 4, 1886 – April 1, 1946, New York City) was an American dramatist. His plays include Salvation Nell (1908) and Romance (1913), which was made into a motion picture with Greta Garbo.

After becoming ill at age 29 with crippling rheumatoid arthritis, which eventually claimed his sight (around 1930), Sheldon became a source of emotional and creative support for his many friends, including such luminaries of the literary and theatrical world as Minnie Maddern Fiske (he wrote Salvation Nell for her), Julia Marlowe, John Barrymore, Thornton Wilder, Alexander Woollcott, Anne Morrow Lindbergh, Ruth Gordon, Helen Hayes and many others.

In May 1915 Sheldon narrowly missed sailing on the Lusitania's infamous last voyage. He had been asked by theater impresario Charles Frohman to accompany him to England. A Harvard classmate of Sheldon's was getting married on May 11 and asked Sheldon to be best man. Sheldon then declined Frohman's offer.

A 1936 lawsuit against Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer for copyright infringement claimed that the script MGM used for the 1932 motion picture Letty Lynton plagiarized material from the play Dishonored Lady by Sheldon and Margaret Ayer Barnes. The film is still unavailable today because of this lawsuit.

His life is detailed in The Man Who Lived Twice by Eric Wollencott Barnes. In this biography Barnes states that Sheldon was in love all his adult life with Doris Keane, the actress who starred in Romance in 1913.

Works

• Salvation Nell (1908), made into the 1915, 1921, and 1931 motion pictures of the same name
• The Nigger (1909), made into the 1915 motion picture of the same name (aka The New Governor) produced by William Fox
• The Boss (1911), made into the 1915 motion picture of the same name
• The High Road (1912), made into the 1915 motion picture of the same name

A scene from The High Road with Minnie Maddern Fiske, 1912

• Romance (1913), notable for its London run of 1,049 performances. Also made into the 1931 motion picture starring Greta Garbo. Produced in New York as a musical, My Romance, with music by Sigmund Romberg and book and lyrics by Rowland Leigh, in 1948.
• The Song of Songs (1914), dramatization of the novel by Hermann Sudermann, made into films in 1918 (The Song of Songs), 1924 (Lily of the Dust), and in 1933 (The Song of Songs, starring Marlene Dietrich, Brian Aherne, and Lionel Atwill)
• The Garden of Paradise (1914), from "The Little Mermaid" by Hans Christian Andersen
• The Jest (1919), adaptation from the Italian of Sem Benelli
• The Czarina (1922), adaptation of the Hungarian play by Melchior Lengyel and Lajos Biró
• Bewitched (1924), with Sidney Howard
• Lulu Belle (1926), with Charles MacArthur, starring Lenore Ulric; made in 1948 into the motion picture of the same name, starring Dorothy Lamour
• Jenny (1929), with Margaret Ayer Barnes
• Dishonored Lady (1930), with Barnes, made into the 1947 motion picture of the same name, starring Hedy Lamarr and directed by Robert Stevenson (alternate title Sins of Madeleine)

External links

• Edward Sheldon at the Internet Broadway Database
• Edward Sheldon at the Internet Movie Database
• Harvard Magazine article, with portrait
• Edward Sheldon at Find a Grave

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