Robert Sherwood was an American playwright and screenwriter who won four Pulitzer Prizes for his work. He was born in New York in 1896, fought in World War I, and was part of the Algonquin Roundtable. His plays, including The Road to Rome and Idiot’s Delight, criticized war. He also wrote a biography of President Roosevelt and worked in Hollywood as a screenwriter.
Robert Sherwood was an American playwright and screenwriter. He was born in 1896, in New York, and died in 1955 at the age of 59. During his lifetime he wrote thirteen plays and a biography of President Roosevelt, winning four Pulitzer Prizes for his work.
Robert Sherwood was born into an artistic family and from an early age was supported in his creative endeavours. He was educated at the private Milton Academy and later earned a BA from Harvard. He fought in World War I with the Canadian Black Watch, and this would influence some of his later writings about him.
When he returned to the United States, Robert Sherwood began working in the magazine world as a film critic. Along with Vanity Fair staffers, Robert Sherwood helped bring to life what was later known as the Algonquin Roundtable. This group, which met from 1919 to 1929, was made up of a number of writers and ingenuity of the time, many active in the newspaper world. They met regularly at the Algonquin Hotel to banter with each other, develop ideas, and strike up friendships. Other notables included Dorothy Parker, Marc Connelly, Edna Ferber, Heywood Broun, Franklin Adams, Robert Benchley and Alexander Woollcott.
In 1927 Robert Sherwood produced his first play, The Road to Rome. Drawing on feelings developed during his time in World War I, The Road to Rome was a comic farce surrounding Hannibal’s failed attempt to invade Rome. Like many of his comedies, it emphasized the stupidity and futility of war, using comedy to express his point of view.
In 1936 Robert Sherwood produced his play, Idiot’s Delight, another indictment of war, albeit this time from a more dramatic bent. He was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for this play, which has been hailed as a great achievement in explaining the tragic ignorance of war. In 1938 Robert Sherwood would win another Pulitzer Prize, this time for his play Abe Lincoln in Illinois. The play covered the life of President Lincoln and was a hit, with one film made in 1940 and five television versions produced between 1945 and 1964.
In 1940 Robert Sherwood wrote There Shall Be No Night, earning him his third Pulitzer Prize in theatre. This game represented a fairly drastic change in his stance towards war, with his previous anti-war stance giving way to a patriotic fervor born out of World War II. The game tells the story of Russia’s invasion of Finland. She would later write a 1948 biography of President Roosevelt, titled Roosevelt and Hopkins, for which he would win his fourth Pulitzer Prize, this time in the Biography or Autobiography category.
Robert Sherwood also did a lot of work in Hollywood and was in great demand as a screenwriter and assistant. He collaborated with Alfred Hitchcock on several occasions, most notably on the 1940 film Rebecca. During the Roosevelt administration, Robert Sherwood also acted as a speechwriter and is credited with one of Roosevelt’s most famous phrases, “the armory of democracy.”
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