Sherwood, Robert E.

(1896-1955)

   Robert Emmet Sherwood was born in New Rochelle, New York, and graduated from Harvard University, where he wrote and worked on theatricals for the Harvard Lampoon and studied with George Pierce Baker. Sherwood's service with the Canadian Black Watch during World War I led to his pacifist stance and mistrust of government. After various writing assignments with Vanity Fair, Life, and Scribner 's, Sherwood's first important play, The Road to Rome (1927), was an antiwar comedy set in ancient times starring Jane Cowl, but it was followed by more overtly commercial offerings, including The Love Nest (1927), The Queen's Husband (1928), and This Is New York (1930). The tragic wartime romance of Sherwood's Waterloo Bridge* (1930) was not well-received, but it proved enduringly popular in two motion picture versions in 1931 and 1940. Sherwood's post-1930 plays were his most important, including Reunion in Vienna* (1931), The Petrified Forest* (1935), and three Pulitzer PRiZE-winners, Idiot's Delight* (1936), Abe Lincoln in Illinois* (1938), and There Shall Be No Night* (1940). During World War II, Sherwood was a speech-writer for President Franklin D. Roosevelt and was appointed director of the Overseas Branch of the Office of War Information, but his postwar plays were less appreciated than his prewar works.