Kaufman, George S(imon)

Kaufman, George S[imon] (1889–1961), New York journalist, playwright, and director, wrote popular plays and musical comedies in collaboration with many authors. Among these were Marc Connelly, with whom he wrote such plays as Dulcy (1921), To the Ladies (1922), Merton of the Movies (1922), and Beggar on Horseback (1924); Ring Lardner, with whom he wrote June Moon (1929); Edna Ferber, with whom he wrote Minick (1924), The Royal Family (1927), Dinner at Eight (1932), Stage Door (1936), and The Land Is Bright (1941); Morrie Ryskind and George Gershwin, with whom he wrote such musical comedies as Of Thee I Sing (1931, Pulitzer Prize) and Let 'Em Eat Cake (1933), satirizing revolutionaries; Katherine Dayton, with whom he wrote First Lady (1935), a comedy of Washington political and social life; and Moss Hart, with whom he wrote Once in a Lifetime (1930), a satire of Hollywood; Merrily We Roll Along (1934), a play in reverse chronology, tracing the hero from his failure in middle age back to his youthful promise; I'd Rather Be Right (1937), a travesty of the F.D. Roosevelt administration; You Can't Take It with You (1936, Pulitzer Prize); The American Way (1939), a patriotic panorama of recent history; The Man Who Came to Dinner (1939), a farce about an author like Alexander Woollcott; and George Washington Slept Here (1940). With J.P. Marquand he wrote an adaptation of The Late George Apley (1944); and with Howard Teichmann, The Solid Gold Cadillac (1953).