Gale, Zona

(1874-1938)

   A native of Portage, Wisconsin, playwright Zona Gale attended the University of Wisconsin, after which she made effective use of her Midwestern small-town roots in a series of successful novels. Most of Gale's attention was devoted to fiction writing, but she also adapted plays from her novels. Gale was the first woman to win the Pulitzer Prize in drama, awarded for Miss Lulu Bett (1920), a poignant comedy/drama about a small-town spinster who reluctantly participates in a mock marriage ceremony that turns out to be genuine. At the request of University of Wisconsin professor Thomas Dickinson, Gale wrote the one-act play The Neighbors (1912) for use by little theatre groups. After its premiere by the Washington Square Players, Gale made it available for royalty-free production by Wisconsin Players or by any group that would plant a tree for each performance. She dramatized her 1918 novel Birth as Mr. Pitt (1924); produced by Brock Pemberton, with Walter Huston in the title role, it ran for 87 performances. Her success at capturing the Midwestern flavor of dialogue made her other plays popular with little theatres: Uncle Jimmy (1922), Evening Clothes and The Clouds (1932), and Faint Perfume (1934).