Hughes, Hatcher

(1883-1945)

   Born in Polkville, North Carolina, Hatcher Hughes attended the University of North Carolina and Columbia University, after which he taught drama at Columbia for several years before his first play, Wake Up, Jonathan (1921), written in collaboration with Elmer Rice, met with Broadway success thanks to the presence of Minnie Maddern Fiske in the cast. Hatcher's solo effort, Hell-Bent fer Heaven (1923), was a controversial recipient of a Pulitzer Prize when it was chosen over George Kelly's The Show-Off. Most of Hughes's subsequent plays were only mildly successful, including Ruint (1925), Honeymoon (1927), It's a Grand Life (1930), and The Lord Blesses the Bishop (1934).