S. N. Behrman

S. N. Behrman
Name	S. N. Behrman
Caption	S. N. Behrman, c. 1940s
Birth date	January 6, 1893
Birth place	New York City, New York, U.S.
Death date	May 3, 1973
Death place	New York City, New York, U.S.
Occupation	Playwright, screenwriter, journalist, critic
Notable works	The Second Man; The Big Knife; Biography of Adolph Green

S. N. Behrman

S. N. Behrman was an American playwright, screenwriter, and journalist known for sophisticated comedies, literary criticism, and profiles of cultural figures. Active across Broadway, Hollywood, and New York journalism from the 1920s through the 1960s, he collaborated with leading actors, directors, and publications of his era. His work intersected with prominent institutions, theatrical movements, and cultural personalities of the interwar and postwar periods.

Early life and education

Born in New York City, Behrman attended public schools before matriculating at Columbia University where he studied under faculty influenced by Harvard University-trained scholars and the wider currents of American letters. After graduating, he pursued postgraduate work that connected him to theatrical circles in Boston and literary salons in Greenwich Village, bringing him into contact with figures associated with Algonquin Round Table-era journalism and the broader milieu of 1920s American drama. Early associations included editors and dramatists linked to publications such as The New Yorker, Vanity Fair, and The Atlantic.

Playwriting career

Behrman emerged as a dramatist writing comedies of manners and social satire for Broadway theaters and independent producers. His plays were produced in venues associated with managers like Eugene O'Neill's contemporaries and staged alongside works by George Bernard Shaw, Noël Coward, and Thornton Wilder on Manhattan stages. He wrote plays that featured leading performers from companies connected to The Theatre Guild and directors affiliated with Garrick Theatre-era productions. Behrman's plays often engaged actors who worked with producers such as David Belasco and directors like George Abbott, and his scripts were reviewed in periodicals including The New York Times, The New Yorker, and Life.

Key works included sophisticated stage comedies that showcased performers from companies with ties to Helen Hayes, Alfred Lunt, and Lynn Fontanne, and his plays toured circuits reaching Chicago and Los Angeles houses. He contributed to the evolution of American stagecraft during the interwar period and participated in artistic networks that included playwrights associated with Pulitzer Prize for Drama winners and nominees.

Film and screenwriting

Transitioning between stage and screen, Behrman wrote and adapted scripts for studios operating in Hollywood and worked with producers connected to Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, Paramount Pictures, and independent production companies. His screenplays intersected with projects featuring stars comparable to Katharine Hepburn, Spencer Tracy, and character actors who moved between Broadway and Motion Picture Academy-honored films. He collaborated with directors from the studio system and contributors who later had ties to Academy Awards nominations. During the studio era he negotiated the differing demands of theatrical adaptation and cinematic narrative, contributing to films that were covered by Variety, screened at venues in New York City and Los Angeles, and discussed by critics associated with Chicago Tribune and Los Angeles Times.

Journalism and essays

Behrman sustained a prolific career as a journalist and essayist, contributing profiles and criticism to publications including The New Yorker, Harper's Magazine, and The Saturday Evening Post. He profiled literary and theatrical figures connected to the circles of George Bernard Shaw, Edmund Wilson, and T. S. Eliot, and wrote essays about dramatists who collaborated with institutions such as Theatre Guild and critics from New York Herald Tribune. His journalism encompassed interviews with actors, directors, and writers who intersected with institutions like Carnegie Hall and festivals that featured work from playwrights represented by agencies in London and Paris. Behrman's critical voice appeared in collections alongside contemporaneous essays by critics linked to The Nation and academics from Princeton University.

Personal life and relationships

Behrman's personal and social circles overlapped with prominent cultural figures of mid-20th-century America, including theater artists, screenwriters, and editors associated with The New Yorker and publishing houses in New York City. He maintained friendships and professional relationships with dramatists and performers who had associations with Broadway luminaries, literary salons in Greenwich Village, and émigré artists who arrived in the United States from Europe during the 1930s and 1940s. His correspondence and interactions included contacts with agents, publishers, and cultural institutions that curated theatrical seasons at venues such as Lincoln Center and regional theaters in Boston and Chicago.

Later years and legacy

In his later years Behrman continued writing and reflecting on theater, contributing essays and memoiristic pieces that engaged with the history of American drama and its institutions like Broadway and The Theatre Guild. His legacy influenced subsequent generations of dramatists and critics who studied collections housed in archives connected to Columbia University and libraries in New York Public Library for the Performing Arts. Scholars and biographers associated with university presses have examined his plays and journalism in the context of American theater history, twentieth-century literary networks, and the development of screenwriting within the studio system. Behrman's contributions remain part of theatrical historiography and are cited in studies related to American drama and cultural criticism.

Category:1893 births Category:1973 deaths Category:American dramatists and playwrights Category:American screenwriters Category:People from New York City