George Jean Nathan
From The Art and Popular Culture Encyclopedia
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“The moving pictures, for all of the Will Hays pious hoopdoodle, go in for blasphemy and foul language that exceed anything in print, and cunningly excite the eroticism of susceptible youth with comely females in the nude. If a writer were to employ such execrations as are clearly and plainly conveyed on the screens by such films as The Big Parade, What Price Glory ,” and “Old Ironsides," the post-office would be on his neck in a jiffy.”--George Jean Nathan |
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George Jean Nathan (February 14 1882 – April 8 1958) was an American drama critic and editor.
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Early life
Nathan was born in Fort Wayne, Indiana. He graduated from Cornell University in 1904, where he was a member of the Quill and Dagger society.
Drama critic career
Noted for the erudition and cynicism of his reviews, Nathan was an early champion of Eugene O'Neill. Together with H.L. Mencken, he co-edited the magazine The Smart Set from 1914 and co-founded The American Mercury in 1924. He was also a founder and an editor (1932–35) of the American Spectator, and after 1943 he wrote a syndicated column for the New York Journal-American.
Over the years, Nathan's criticisms were published in Mr. George Jean Nathan Presents (1917), The Critic and the Drama (1922), The Testament of a Critic (1931), Since Ibsen (1933), Passing Judgments (1935), The World of George Jean Nathan (1952), and The Magic Mirror (1960). Nathan's philosophy of criticism is laid out in Autobiography of an Attitude (1925).
Relationships and marriage
Though he published a paean to The Bachelor Life in 1941, Nathan had a reputation as a "ladies man" -- and one not averse to dating within his field; indeed the character of Addison De Witt, the waspish theater critic who squires a starlet (played by a then-unknown Marilyn Monroe) in the film All About Eve, was based on Nathan. His most famous relationship was reportedly with actress Lillian Gish. Their relationship began in the late 1920s and lasted almost a decade, with Gish repeatedly refusing his marriage proposals.
Nathan eventually married considerably younger stage actress Julie Haydon in 1955.
Death
Nathan died in New York City in 1958, aged 76.
Legacy
The George Jean Nathan Award, an honor in dramatic criticism, is named after him.
Quote
- "One does not go to the theater to see life and nature; one goes to see the particular way in which life and nature happen to look to a cultivated, imaginative and entertaining man who happens, in turn, to be a playwright."
