Robert E. Sherwood

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Robert E. Sherwood was a great American playwright, but also was a well known editor and critic. Sherwood’s works were based on human issues that he discovered to be problems with society both in social and personal settings. After he had so much success with some plays such as Abe Lincoln in Illinois he even had the unique privilege to work as a speechwriter with President Franklin Roosevelt (Johnston). Sherwood’s work help put things in perspective to a lot of people and it helped him because the things he wrote about were things that he thought were the real issues when he was growing up and as he lived his life. Robert E. Sherwood is an author of unique experiences and ideas that come to life in his writing and ultimately helped him be …show more content…

He was the son of an accomplished investment broker by the name of Arthur Sherwood, and his mother Rosina Emmet Sherwood who was an artistic woman. Sherwood was born into a family with generations of artists and authors. His grandmother named Mary Elizabeth Wilson Sherwood was the author of over twenty books and wrote many articles. By the age of seven he was already following in his ancestor 's footsteps and edited a children’s magazine called “Children’s Life”. At the age of ten he had finished his first play called Tom Ruggles’ Surprise (“Robert E.”). Sherwood grew up in a fortunate family, and lived on a three hundred acre estate in New York. As he grew up and matured he eventually moved to Massachusetts to attend Milton Academy in preparation to go to Harvard University (Johnston). Though Sherwood was intelligent he was not fond of going to school and was known for a few rule breaking offenses such as setting a school room on fire and then putting it out just so he could get praise from people at the school, he later admitted to setting the fire so he could “set the record …show more content…

After a few years, Sherwood and two other co-workers left to go to Life magazine. And soon he became the editor of Life. He made a lot of money as an editor but was also in a lot of debt and was forced to turn to writing plays so he could have money. And in 1926 he wrote his first professional play called The Road to Rome and in early 1927 was performed for three hundred and ninety-two shows in New York at The Playhouse. He then wrote his second play Abe Lincoln in Illinois this play was his longest performed show in the New York theaters. With the success of these play’s it helped Sherwood’s financial troubles. Sherwood continued to write and soon he finished another play called The Love Nest it was performed for only twenty- five shows and was a big disappointment to Sherwood. After a poor play Sherwood did not quite and wrote another play called The Queen’s Husband and once again it was not as successful as his first play’s, and was performed for one hundred and twenty-five shows. Sherwood still though continued to write plays some successful, but others were criticised for being repetitive to Sherwood’s earlier plays (Johnston). Sherwood was awarded however for his successful plays. Sherwood won four Pulitzer Prize for Drama and Biography and Autobiography. He also won an Academy Award for Best Adapted Screenplay in 1946 and also

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