Amazon.com Review
Since the 1950s a whole generation of women playwrights has come to the fore--three won Pulitzers in the 1980s. But lest we mistake the time before that as a boys-only wasteland,
Women Playwrights reminds us of 35 important female dramatists. Editor Yvonne Shafer puts the obvious--Edna Ferber, Lillian Hellman, Gertrude Stein, and Dorothy Parker--alongside such idiosyncratic talents as Claire Kummer, who wrote absurdist comedies, and Josephine Preston Peabody, who wrote in verse. The book cries out for a production list for each author, but we do get perceptive biographical essays that put their work in the context of their lives, and their lives in the context of their times.
From the Publisher
I am touched and astonished by these stories. The women discussed in this book haven't just written plays intriguing for a given moment in history; they've written intriguing plays, period. They were a remarkable breed... from the Foreword by Wendy Wasserstein. This book presents an analysis of the lives and the many plays written by women in the American theatre in the first half of the century. Includes such playwrights as Rachel Crothers, Zona Gale, Susan Glaspell, Edna Ferber, and Lillian Hellman. The plays are discussed in terms of their popular and critical value and placed within the historical and social background of the period. In this time of intense change for women in American society, the plays reflect the new demands for freedom, careers, the right to vote, equality with men, and the right to intellectual development.
It is heartening to see at last a book that demonstrates the impressive range of achievements by American women playwrights in the first half of our century. Yvonne Shafer covers the works and days of both familiar and unsung women dramatists. A number of African American women playwrights find their rightful places alongside the more familiar names. Felicia Londré, Curators' Professor of Theatre, University of Missouri - Kansas City
It's amazing how little has been written or said about the women playwrights in America before our time. But their careers, in addition to being exciting and productive, were heroic. Yvonne Shafer's lovingly detailed, beautifully written book about them brings this heroism alive, and helps us understand what is behind these plays and what makes them so urgent, compelling, and worthy of new productions. It's a great, and invaluable, read. Austin Pendleton, Actor/Director
