Moody, William Vaughn

(1869-1910)

   Born in Spencer, Indiana, William Vaughn Moody attended Harvard University. He taught there for a time, and also at the University of Chicago. Moody made his mark initially as author of A History of English Literature (1902) and some poetry. He also worked with Donald Robertson's New Theatre and wrote two verse plays with Harriet Brainerd. When Moody switched to prose, he crafted one of the most significant dramas of the first decade of the 20th century. The Great Divide (1906), starring Margaret Anglin in a David Belasco production, employed melodramatic elements and provided depth of character and seriousness of theme well beyond other plays of its period. The success of The Great Divide led to a few other dramatic works, including The Death of Eve (1907) and The Faith Healer (1909), the latter another harbinger of modernism in American drama despite failure at the box office. Moody married Brainerd in 1909, but his health rapidly declined and he died the following year of a brain tumor. The promise of his work for a serious American drama was left unfulfilled until the appearance of Eugene O'Neill a decade later.