Gassner, John

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GASSNER, JOHN

GASSNER, JOHN (1903–1967), U.S. author, critic, and anthologist. He was playreader in the 1930s for Theater Guild, and in 1940 established the playwriting seminar of Erwin Piscator's Dramatic Workshop. Gassner also functioned as dramatic critic for various publications. He was professor of playwriting and dramatic literature at Yale from 1956. He was one of two members of the drama jury of the Pulitzer Prize who resigned in 1963 when the trustees rejected the verdict for Edward Albee's Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? and made no award. His writings include (with B. Mantle) Treasury of the Theater (3 vols., 1935), Masters of the Drama (1940), The Theater in Our Times (1954), Heritage of World Literature (1946, vol. 7 of Literature, ed. by E.A. Cross), and Best American Plays 1918–1958 (1961).