Zoe Akins Broadway Playwright

Subjects:

• Literature » Literature (General)
• Literature » Drama
• Literature » American Literature
• Women's Studies » Women's Studies (General)

Reviews:

• It is difficult to believe that Akins (1886-1958), one of the most important female voices in the history of the American theater, has received as little attention as she has. Akins was a poet and the author of more than 40 plays, including 18 that appeared on Broadway between 1919 and 1944. This wonderful biography may restore Akins's reputation. Kreizenbeck approaches Akins's work decade by decade, from her initial success with Déclassée (Declassee) (1919) to her final important work, the Pulitzer Prize-winning stage adaptation of Edith Wharton's The Old Maid (1935)....This well-written study suggests that a reevaluation of Akins's place in the history of American dramatic literature is long overdue. The book contains an excellent appendix of her plays and adaptations and of films made from her plays. Highly recommended. Lower-division undergraduates through faculty and professionals; general readers.
  —Choice March 2005
• [A]lan Kreizenbeck's biography of Zoe Akins is well researched and written. The author does not claim greatness for Akins but instead recognizes that she was a woman who competed in a man's world and gained a measure of success. She learned how to craft a play for the Broadway audiences of the 1920s, and continued to supply plays for this audiences into the early 1940s. While she was not an innovator, she was a successful Broadway playwright and her best work is worth our attention today.
  —Theater History Studies 2005

Table of Contents:

• Acknowledgments
• Dedication
• Introduction
• Early Influences
• Poetry
• Early Plays
• The 19020s
• The 1930s and The Old Maid
• The 1940s and Conclusion
• Appendix A
• Appendix B
• Bibliography