Gibbs, [Oliver] Wolcott (1902–58), critic. A descendant of Oliver Wolcott, signer of the Declaration of Independence, he was born in New York and attended the Hill School but not college. He held such odd jobs as architect's apprentice and railroad conductor before joining The New Yorker, for which he became drama critic when Robert Benchley retired in 1939 and held the post until his death. Gibbs could be acerbic, as when he wrote of Saroyan's My Heart's in the Highlands, “This collision between the most completely undisciplined talent in American letters and the actors of the Group Theatre bored me utterly to distraction.” But he could also be warm and open, as when he confessed to a “feeling of rising excitement” while watching Abe Lincoln in Illinois, concluding, “I suppose it was just the surprise and gratitude and somehow sorrow of seeing a very great man exactly as he must have been.” He was one of those rare critics who successfully worked both sides of the footlights, writing the well‐received comedy Season in the Sun (1950).




