Norman Corwin has won the One World Award, two Peabody Medals, an Emmy, a Golden Globe, and a duPont-Columbia Award. He was nominated for an Academy Award for the screenplay for Lust for Life; and he has won many other citations for his lifetime career in publishing and in the theater. He recently reviewed Paul Firestone's book: "The Pulitzer Prize Plays - The First Fifty Years, 1917-1967 - A Dramatic Reflection of American Life". His review of July 24, 2009 is reprinted here in its entirety:

            "Sometimes a great book is published without due
notice; either the publisher has run out of money--- common these days---or has no confidence that promotion will help.

            "Whatever the cause, this has happened to a remarkable
book titled “The Pulitzer Plays”, by Paul A. Firestone, who has written a marvelous compendium of the first 50 years of Pulitzer Play Awards. It belongs in every library of every student of drama and established playwrights in the country, every writer, every member of the Dramatist Guild, Writers Guild, Directors Guild, actor society, and producers enclaves in the country.

            "It is a compendium of the best drama, by vote of an established jury of drama critics of the New York press in that city where the same man whose newspaper, The New York Post, helped to fund The Statue of Liberty.

            "Each person who has lived or worked in New York during those fifty years will recognize the titles of these prize-winning plays and count the ones he has seen. I, who came to New York in my youth, have seen fifteen.

            "Mr. Firestone has furnished brisk synopses of each play, named the entire casts, directors, stage managers and whatever special circumstances of the choices may be pertinent, such as the refusal of the award by William Saroyan, who returned his check of $1000 on the grounds that he did not believe in awards. He is the only playwright who has turned the award down. So far.

            "This book is a compact source of information on what is the theatre’s most famous award, well ranked above the annual award shows on Broadway and television. It’s a book which belongs in every reference library in the world."

Norman Corwin
July 24, 2009

            More information about Norman Corwin can be found on the Wikipedia page about him. After reading that page, use your browser's 'back' button to return here, after which you can use the buttons below to continue on to view other pages on this web site.