Robert E. Sherwood: The Playwright in Peace and War (review)

{ 231 } BOOK REV IEWS \ Robert E. Sherwood: The Playwright in Peace and War. By Harriet Hyman Alonso. Amherst: Massachusetts University Press, 2007. 414 pp. $28.95 paper. In Robert E. Sherwood: The Playwright in Peace and War, Harriet Hyman Alonso argues anew that Robert Sherwood was “shaped by the larger world—by his involvement in international affairs, his passion for human rights, and his desire for world peace” (5). Moreover, Alonso insists that Sherwood—one of the first U.S. film critics, winner of four Pulitzer Prizes and an Oscar, cofounder of the Playwrights’ Producing Company, and creator of the Voice of America radio network—was a“unique voice that simultaneously echoed public opinion while challenging people to think about the world beyond the borders of the United States” (5). Given that it has been over thirty years since any book-length study of Sherwood has appeared, this interdisciplinary biography is a welcomed, and much needed, resource. Alonso cleverly divides her study into three segments: “Act One,” “Interlude ,” and “Act Two.” “Act One” includes a prologue and five chapters, all of which pertain to Sherwood’s life from infancy to his return from World War I. “Interlude” handles the rather messy divorce from Mary Brandon and its influence on his writing. “Act Two,” comprising four chapters and an epilogue, tracks Sherwood’s shift from creative writer and producer to political operative and back again. There are fourteen images between “Act One” and “Interlude,” and the book concludes with a listing of chapter notes and bibliographic information . What makes Alonso’s work so compelling is the inclusion of previously unpublished diary material, first-person narratives, and other correspondence drawn largely from the Sherwood Papers at the Houghton Library. Chapter 1, “Being an Emmet and a Sherwood,” recounts how his lineage imbued in Sherwood the “values that had driven generations of Emmets and Sherwoods into politics and the arts” (7). To do so Alonso backtracks to the eighteenth century, explicating how both families were“literate and artistic and shared the values of patriotism and sympathy for the underdog” (13). In chapter 2, “Born to Be a Ham,” the focus narrows to Sherwood’s immediate family and their comfortable life, sustained by a Harvard-educated father. It is both the exposure to theatre (and circus) in New York and formative educational experiences at the Fay School and Milton Academy that nurture young Sherwood ’s artistic talents. Ironically, because of poor grades, he did not graduate from Milton, due in large part to his obsession with writing, drawing, and performing . Chapter 3,“From Soldier to Pacifist,”tells of a youthful man“drawn to { 232 } BOOK REV IEWS the romance of military service” (36). Alonso links this to Sherwood’s“remembered glow” of “patriotic, nationalistic ancestors” (41). As with most, Sherwood was forever shaped by what he saw during war. “He entered a militarist,” notes Alonso,“and left it a pacifist”(62). Chapter 4,“Life after War,”narrates just that, encompassing Sherwood’s time at Vanity Fair and Life as well as his association with the Algonquin Round Table.“Act One” ends with “Writing Plays for Peace,” proposing that “Sherwood was one of the first clear post–World War I antiwar voices heard on the stage” (95). By way of support Alonso references several plays—both successful and unsuccessful—including The Road to Rome (1927), The Queen’s Husband (1928), and Reunion in Vienna (1931). Although Alonso’s prose can become somewhat dense in its treatment of genealogical information, what“Act One” does quite well is isolate major life moments that express themselves within Sherwood’s postwar creative writing and political activities. Chapter 6,“Marriage, Divorce, and The Petrified Forest,” serves as the “Interlude .” Sherwood and Mary Brandon exchanged vows October 29, 1922, had a child one year later, and were divorced in 1934. Ultimately, Sherwood found himself in love with and married to Madeline Connelly, the ex-wife of his best friend, playwright Marc Connelly. Amid this turbulence Sherwood continued to refine his playwriting, eventually drafting The Petrified Forest. This play was his “first attempt to write about the contemporary United States” (153). Within a tale of greed and unbridled national expansion (154), Sherwood...