Who is the greatest American playwright of all-time?

And why?

I suppose the main contenders would be Arthur Miller, Tennessee Williams, Edward Albee, August Wilson and Eugene O'Neill.

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Updated On: 4/19/07 at 04:44 PM

Eugene O'Neill

I was thinking about that Kingras, but I personally don't think that, at this point, he is quite in the realm of the others.

The reason I was asking is because I'm reading all of the major and semi-major works of all of them, so I was just curious as to what everyone thought. I've finished Miller and I've moved on to Albee.

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Don't forget to add Thornton Wilder to that list. His works are uniquely American, and OUR TOWN, despite its reputation as a high school staple, is a masterpiece of visual imagery in words that works on so many levels at once that when done with care and intelligence it dazzles. We tend to forget its importance in changing the American approach to theater.

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Without O'Neill, none of the others would have been able to do what they did. O'Neill created the modern American drama.

Ask me my favorite and I'll give you a different answer.

But as for greatest? I don't know how you can go with anyone other than O'Neill.

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Updated On: 4/19/07 at 05:02 PM

I second the Kushner addition and suggest Neil Simon also.
Although if there had to be just one, it would be Eugene O'Neill.

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Arthur Miller.I was fortunate in seeing his DEATH OF A SALESMAN starring George C. Scott many decades ago at the Circle in the Square. At the end everyone in the theatre was crying. I have never been so moved by a play. It was said that Scott put so much of himself into his portrayal that he would get drunk every night after the play. What an actor he was when he was given a great playwright's script.

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"Greatest" is a completely personal and subjective measure

That's what I was asking. Not who was the most influential, but who you personally think has the greatest body of work.

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See, I'm a little embarrassed to say it, but not only have I never seen any of those three plays, but I've never even read them. Which is why I'm going through the plays of all the author's I mentioned.

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Reading O'Neill's plays in order can have the effect of giving you a portrait of the birth, adolescence and adulthood of American drama through the mind of one man. From his shorter, political, penetrating early dramas (Beyond the Horizon, The Emperor Jones -- check out the Paul Robeson film; The Hairy Ape; Anna Christie -- check out the Garbo film version), to his epic melodramas (Mourning Becomes Electra -- which resets the Orestes trilogy on a Civil War plantation; and the highly experimental Strange Interlude) to his late tragic masterpieces (Iceman -- check out the filmed tv version with an extraordinary Jason Robards; Mourning -- the Robards-Colleen Dewhurst production is on DVD and is a landmark in American theatre; and Long Days -- there are several versions available but I think the Katharine Hepburn, Sir Ralph Richardson, Robards, Dean Stockwell version may be the best), O'Neill singlehandedly turned American drama into a major international artistic force (he's still the only American playwright to win the Nobel Prize in Literature).

Now, some complain that he can be redundant, overlong and overly wordy and that his poetic gifts aren't quite on a par with later masters such as Tennessee Williams and August Wilson, but taking his works as a whole and considering the context of the time during which he was writing (when he had no model to follow, but his own) he's acomplishments are downright miraculous.

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Updated On: 4/19/07 at 05:45 PM

Eugene O'Neill. His body of work speaks for itself, but if I had to put it in my own words, I would say that the greatest argument would be that his work blended many different genres into a truly singular dramatic voice. He was also one of the first American playwrights to delve into the psyche of the characters he presented. His plays still pack quite a punch today, which is a testament to his genius.

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I have to throw Lanford Wilson into the mix - his works are astonishing. The Talley Family Trilogy, Balm in Gilead, Burn This, Serenading Louie, Hot l Baltimore, Lemon Sky, The Mound Builders, Redwood Forest, Angel Falls, The Rimers of Eldrich, The Madness of Lady Bright . . . While I concede he may not be the "greatest," he is certainly my favorite.

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I agree with Professor that to get a full picture of the breadth and scope of American drama, one needs to go beyond the giants such as O'Neill, Williams, Miller, Wilder Inge, and Albee. There's a long list of notable and terrific playwrights, some of who only produced one or two great plays, but are certainly well-worth reading. I could probably come up with a fairly comprehensive list with a little time (and would be glad to recommend titles of individuals plays if you so choose), but off the top of my head some of the important American ones to add to Professor's list (in no particular order):

Clifford Odets
Lillian Hellman
August Wilson
Lanford Wilson
Maria Irene-Fornes
Leroi Jones
Adrienne Kennedy
Wendy Wasserstein
David Rabe
Douglas Turner Ward
Christopher Durang
David Henry Hwang

There are, of course others. And you should also think about supplementing your reading list with several Brits and Europeans, some of whom are a even more important than most of the people mentioned here (Beckett, Brecht, Pinter, Stoppard, Genet, Giradoux, Shaw, Coward, Ayckbourn, Frayn, Friel, Wilde, Ionesco, Pirandello, Shaffer, Nichols, and SO many others).

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Updated On: 4/20/07 at 06:23 PM