Bronson Howard

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Howard, Bronson [Crocker] (1842–1908), playwright. Often called “the dean of the American drama,” he is generally considered the first American dramatist to earn a living entirely by playwriting. He came from old American stock, and his father, a successful merchant, served as mayor of Detroit, where Howard was born. Forced to leave Yale because of eye problems, Howard served as drama critic with the Detroit Free Press as he wrote Fantine (1864), a play based on incidents in Hugo's Les Misérables. He then moved to New York, accepting positions with the Tribune and then the Post. In 1870 Augustin Daly produced his Saratoga, a huge success that later played profitably in England and Germany. Howard, however, was uncertain whether its popularity was a fluke, so he continued for several more years in the newspaper field. At the same time he wrote the comedy of manners Diamonds (1872), the drama Moorcroft (1874), and the romance The Banker's Daughter (1878), which remained popular for many years and convinced Howard to abandon newspaper work. Several lesser plays followed before he wrote the social plays Young Mrs. Winthrop (1882) and One of Our Girls (1885). His last popular works were the comedy‐drama The Henrietta (1887) and the Civil War play Shenandoah (1889). Arthur Quinn has written, “It is just because Howard so well illustrated. . .the development of American play‐writing during the period of his creative achievement from 1870 to 1906, that his work becomes of such significance.” Howard fought to have American themes made more welcome on stage and to secure the position of the American playwright. To the latter end, in 1891 he organized the American Dramatists Club, which evolved into the Society of American Dramatists and Composers. Although he left no personal autobiography and no full‐fledged biography of him has been written, his The Autobiography of a Play (1914) gives a detailed, fascinating history of The Banker's Daughter and provides numerous insights into his character.

Howard, Bronson [Crocker] (1842–1908), Michigan‐born dramatist, came to New York in 1865, where he became a pioneer in the drama of contemporary manners with his farce Saratoga⧫ (1870) and of social criticism in Young Mrs. Winthrop (1882). Old Love Letters (1878) was a popular one‐act social comedy. Baron Rudolph (1881) and The Henrietta (1887) were satires on American business. One of Our Girls (1885) was a social comedy contrasting French and American standards, a theme further elaborated in Aristocracy (1892), contrasting a nouveau riche Californian, an old established New Yorker, and a European patrician. Shenandoah (1888), a Civil War drama, was his greatest and most popular work. Although Howard did much to improve the American drama, he was bound by both convention and his own desire to achieve effects at the expense of realism.

Bronson Howard 1842–1908, American dramatist, b. Detroit. His plays are important in the development of American drama. He was a newspaper reporter in New York until the success of his first play, Saratoga, a farcical comedy produced in 1870. He wrote 12 subsequent plays, including Young Mrs. Winthrop (1882), one of the first American dramas of social criticism; The Henrietta (1887), a satire on business practice; and by far his most popular play, Shenandoah (1888), a Civil War drama, first unsuccessfully produced but revived the following year with great success.

Bibliography: See his collected plays (ed. by A. G. Halline, 1941).