Playwright and author S. N. (Samuel Nathaniel) Behrman was born in Worcester, Massachusetts in 1893. He was the youngest of three sons raised by Lithuanian immigrants in the heart of Worcester's Jewish community on Providence Street. An older sister was killed in a streetcar accident during her childhood. The family lived in a tenement which Behrman later mused was "heavily populated with angels," their imaginary presence invoked by the Hebrew prayers of his father, a devout, scholarly man who spent long hours studying the Talmud. ....
[After graduating from Harvard and Columbia, an education paid for by his accountant brothers, Behrman established himself as a writer ] He penned dozens of book reviews for The New York Times, where he worked briefly in the classified advertising department and later as an assistant editor of the book section. Early in 1920, Behrman was sent by the Times to interview the British poet Siegfried Sassoon, then visiting New York on a reading tour. Behrman was deeply moved by Sassoon's passion for literature and by the strong moral sensibility evidenced in his war poems. The two writers spent a great deal of time together while Sassoon was in New York, and they corresponded for many years afterwards. When Behrman later visited England, it was Sassoon who introduced him into intellectual circles that profoundly influenced his writing, advanced his career and enriched his personal life. Behrman's European acquaintances and friends included authors W. Somerset Maugham and Osbert Sitwell; Lydia Keynes, the former ballerina and wife of John Maynard Keynes; and society doyenne Sibyl Colefax.....
[In the spring of 1927] Behrman's comedy The Second Man was staged by the Theatre Guild, an important venue for new American drama. The company's acclaimed leading lights, Alfred Lunt and Lynn Fontanne, starred in this successful production which firmly established the playwright's reputation. Based on a short story Behrman had written years before, The Second Man concerns a hack writer faced with a romantic choice between a wealthy woman who supports him financially and a beautiful younger woman who adores him. This portrait of a character in a state of indecision was praised by critics for its cultured, witty dialog and its subtle insight into human psychology. After a six-month New York run, the play toured the United States and was later staged in London with Noël Coward in the lead role.
....[Over the next decade he was successful in New York and in Hollywood]....
On June 20, 1936, Behrman was married to Elza Heifetz Stone, the recently divorced sister of the famed violinist Jascha Heifetz. A son, Arthur David, was born to the couple the following year, and Behrman became stepfather to two children from his wife's previous marriage. By this time his social set included many prominent actors and actresses, editors, publishers and Hollywood producers. Though he once remarked that he hated to write letters, he nonetheless conducted a broad correspondence with such renowned figures as art critic Bernard Berenson; ... U. S. Supreme Court Justice Felix Frankfurter; lyricist Ira Gershwin; and philosopher Isaiah Berlin. During the 1930s and '40s Behrman wrote numerous letters on behalf of European Jews fleeing Nazi terror and sought to win them entry into the United States.....
[Behrman was closely associated with The New Yorker magazine] Many of his penetrating biographical sketches, which first appeared in The New Yorker, were eventually collected and published as books. These volumes include Duveen (1952), a portrait of the art dealer Joseph Duveen ....[and] Portrait of Max (1960), about the writer and caricaturist Max Beerbohm ....
The above notes were copied from an article that should be read in its entirety, since Behrman is not as well known as he should be.
Matthew Noone, an arrogant and misogynistic bachelor develops an irrational aversion to Miss Timme, a shy seamstress who lives in the same apartment building. He kills the stray cat she takes in, contrives for her to lose her job, and gets her thrown out of the apartment. When he learns that she has committed suicide, he trumpets it as proof of her mental derangement.
[In the spring of 1927] Behrman's comedy The Second Man was staged by the Theatre Guild, an important venue for new American drama. The company's acclaimed leading lights, Alfred Lunt and Lynn Fontanne, starred in this successful production which firmly established the playwright's reputation. Based on a short story Behrman had written years before, The Second Man concerns a hack writer faced with a romantic choice between a wealthy woman who supports him financially and a beautiful younger woman who adores him. This portrait of a character in a state of indecision was praised by critics for its cultured, witty dialog and its subtle insight into human psychology. After a six-month New York run, the play toured the United States and was later staged in London with Noël Coward in the lead role.
....[Over the next decade he was successful in New York and in Hollywood]....
On June 20, 1936, Behrman was married to Elza Heifetz Stone, the recently divorced sister of the famed violinist Jascha Heifetz. A son, Arthur David, was born to the couple the following year, and Behrman became stepfather to two children from his wife's previous marriage. By this time his social set included many prominent actors and actresses, editors, publishers and Hollywood producers. Though he once remarked that he hated to write letters, he nonetheless conducted a broad correspondence with such renowned figures as art critic Bernard Berenson; ... U. S. Supreme Court Justice Felix Frankfurter; lyricist Ira Gershwin; and philosopher Isaiah Berlin. During the 1930s and '40s Behrman wrote numerous letters on behalf of European Jews fleeing Nazi terror and sought to win them entry into the United States.....
[Behrman was closely associated with The New Yorker magazine] Many of his penetrating biographical sketches, which first appeared in The New Yorker, were eventually collected and published as books. These volumes include Duveen (1952), a portrait of the art dealer Joseph Duveen ....[and] Portrait of Max (1960), about the writer and caricaturist Max Beerbohm ....
The above notes were copied from an article that should be read in its entirety, since Behrman is not as well known as he should be.
Our attention is also drawn to a short story Behrman published in the April 1923 issue of Smart Set. We quote a synopsis from S.N. Behrman: a research and production sourcebook (1992) put together by Robert F Gross:
Matthew Noone, an arrogant and misogynistic bachelor develops an irrational aversion to Miss Timme, a shy seamstress who lives in the same apartment building. He kills the stray cat she takes in, contrives for her to lose her job, and gets her thrown out of the apartment. When he learns that she has committed suicide, he trumpets it as proof of her mental derangement.
The story is 8 pages long. I know what you are probably thinking, but it is interesting.
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