Louis Sheaffer
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Louis Sheaffer
- Born: 1912
- Birthplace: Louisville, KY
- Died: 1993
Louis Sheaffer was born Louis Slung in 1912. He worked as a reporter and drama critic for the Brooklyn Eagle from 1934 until the paper folded in 1955. Sometime during that period he changed his name to Sheaffer, referring to it laughingly as his "pen name," after the well-known fountain pen company.
In 1956, Sheaffer became a press agent for the Eugene O'Neill play, The Iceman Cometh, and later for the first New York production of Long Day's Journey Into Night, at the Helen Hayes Theater. Developing a deep interest in O'Neill and his work, Sheaffer decided to write a biography of the playwright. He researched the man, his family and his plays for 16 years, and finally published O'Neill, Son and Playwright in 1968. It won the George Freedley Award from the Theater Library Association. The second volume, O'Neill, Son and Artist, won 1974's Pulitzer Prize for Biography.
Most Famous Works
- O'Neill: Son and Playwright (1968)
- O'Neill: Son and Artist (1973)
Houghton Mifflin Chronology of US Literature:
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Works by Louis Sheaffer
(1912-1993)
| 1973 | O'Neill, Son and Artist. Sheaffer wins the Pulitzer Prize for the second volume of his biography of the playwright, begun with O'Neill: Son and Playwright (1968). Meticulously researched and detailed, Sheaffer's biography is widely accepted as the definitive life. He had worked as the drama and film critic for the Brooklyn Eagle and as the theatrical press agent for New York's Circle in the Square Theater. |
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