Zoë Akins

Akins, Zoë (1886–1958), playwright. She was born in Humansville, Missouri, and made her professional writing debut with the one‐actor The Magical City (1916). Many critics saw great promise in Papa (1919), her comedy about a father who attempts to save his faltering fortune by marrying off his daughters; but her reputation was established by the success of Déclassée (1919), about a woman who abandons home and husband. Akins met with varying success with such plays as Daddy's Gone A‐Hunting (1921), which depicted the consequences of a man's desertion of his family; The Varying Shore (1921), the history of a courtesan told in flashbacks in reverse chronological order; The Texas Nightingale (also known as Greatness) (1922), about the troubled life of an opera singer; A Royal Fandango (1923), in which a promiscuous princess is brought to her senses; and a series of adaptations of foreign plays: The Moon‐Flower (1924), First Love (1926), The Crown Prince (1927), The Love Duel (1929), and South of Siam (1929). A bawdy comedy about gold‐digging ex‐Follies girls, The Greeks Had a Word for It (1930), was a huge success; and she won a Pulitzer Prize for her dramatization of Edith Wharton's The Old Maid (1935). Thereafter, however, her adaptations and such original plays as O Evening Star (1936) and Mrs. January and Mr. X (1944) met largely with indifference. While many of her early plays shocked audiences by their candor, changing moral codes have dulled their sharpness. Nevertheless, her works can be perceived as urbane, with a superior flare for dramatic situations.

• Born: October 30, 1886
• Birthplace: Humansville, MO
• Died: October 29, 1958

Playwright Zoe Akins received the Pulitzer Prize in 1935 for her dramatization of Edith Wharton's story, "The Old Maid."

For many years, Akins lived in St. Louis where she wrote poetry and criticism for a local periodical. Later she contributed to leading magazines.

Her first foray into drama came in 1914 with Papa. She had a number of other plays produced over the next 15 years, before she achieved critical acclaim for her play, "The Greeks Had a Word For It" (1929-1930). Akins also authored many screenplays, including Camille (1936), How to Marry a Millionaire (1953), and Stage Struck (1958), two volumes of poetry, and a novel. She was married to Captain Hugo C. L. Rumbold.

Most Famous Works

• "Papa" (1914)
• "The Magical City"
• "Declassee"
• "The Greeks Had a Word for It"
• "The Old Maid" (1935)
• "Footloose"
• "Daddy's Gone a' Hunting"
• "The Little Miracle"
• "The Love Duel"
• Interpretations (1937)
• The Hills Grow Smaller (1937)
• Forever Young

(1886-1958)

1919	Déclassée. This drama about an English noblewoman who abandons her husband and home after exposing a card cheat whom she loves establishes Akins's reputation as a dramatist. Akins was born in Missouri and came to New York to write plays for the Washington Square Players. Subsequent works include Daddy's Gone A-Hunting (1921), The Varying Shore (1921), and The Texas Nightingale (1922).
1921	Daddy's Gone A-Hunting. Akins's play concerns a man who leaves his wife to pursue a career as a painter. Also appearing is The Varying Shore, a play that moves backward in chronological time from the death of an experienced woman to her innocent girlhood.
1935	The Old Maid. Akins's sentimental dramatization of Edith Wharton's 1924 novella wins the Pulitzer Prize and helps prompt dismayed drama critics to form the New York Drama Critics Circle to present its own annual drama awards.

• Born: Oct 30, 1886 in Humansville, Missouri
• Died: Oct 29, 1958 in New York City
• Occupation: Writer
• Active: '20s-'30s
• Major Genres: Drama, Romance
• Career Highlights: Camille, Anybody's Woman, How to Marry a Millionaire
• First Major Screen Credit: Declasse (1925)

Biography

Raised in Missouri, Ms. Akins got her start by submitting poems and short stories to the St. Louis Mirror. She wrote her first Broadway play, The Magical City, in 1919, but it was her second theatrical piece, the Ethel Barrymore vehicle Declassee, which made her famous. Ms. Akins' arch, mannered writing style was not to everyone's taste; she was a favorite target of male theatrical critics, one of whom summed up her output as "The Curse of an Akins Heart." Still, her plays enjoyed great popularity in the 1920s and 1930s, none more so than her 1930 Broadway hit The Greeks Had a Word for It, the story of three gold-digging girls on the prowl for millionaire husbands (the play was filmed twice, the last time in 1953 as How to Marry a Millionaire). For her 1935 stage adaptation of Edith Wharton's novel The Old Maid, Akins won the Pulitzer Prize-an unpopular decision, correctly perceived as a deliberate slap in the face to Lillian Hellman, whose controversial The Children's Hour was also in competition that year. Her screenplay for Morning Glory (1933) was instrumental in securing an Academy Award for star Katharine Hepburn. Zoe Akins' final film credit was the 1947 MGM romantic melodrama Desire Me ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

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