Anderson, Maxwell, 1888–1959, American dramatist, b. Atlantic, Pa., grad. Univ. of North Dakota, 1911. His plays, many of which are written in verse, usually concern social and moral problems. Anderson was a journalist until the successful production in 1924 of What Price Glory?, a war drama written with Laurence Stallings. Winterset (1935), based on the Sacco-Vanzetti case, is probably Anderson's most successful verse tragedy. He wrote many historical dramas including Elizabeth the Queen (1930), Mary of Scotland (1933), Valley Forge (1934), Joan of Lorraine (1947), Anne of the Thousand Days (1948), and Barefoot in Athens (1951). Among his other plays are Both Your Houses (1933), High Tor (1937), The Star Wagon (1937), Key Largo (1939), and The Eve of St. Mark (1942). He also wrote the librettos for Kurt Weill's Knickerbocker Holiday (1938) and Lost in the Stars (1940). A collection of his poetry, Notes on a Dream, was published in 1972.

His eldest son,

Quentin Anderson, 1914–2003, b. Minnewauken, N.Dak., was a literary critic, cultural historian, and Columbia Univ. professor (1939–81). Educated at Columbia (B.A., 1937; Ph. D., 1953) and Harvard (M.A., 1945), he was an expert on 19th-century American literature and wrote such books as The American Henry James (1957), The Imperial Self (1971), and Making Americans (1992).

Bibliography

See biography by A. S. Shivers (1982); bibliography by M. Cox (1958, repr. 1974).

Anderson, (James) Maxwell

(born Dec. 15, 1888, Atlantic, Pa., U.S.—died Feb. 28, 1959, Stamford, Conn.) U.S. playwright. He worked as a journalist before cowriting his first successful play, What Price Glory? (1924), which was followed by Saturday's Children (1927). His verse dramas Elizabeth the Queen (1930) and Mary of Scotland (1933) were later adapted for film. He returned to prose for the satire Both Your Houses (1933, Pulitzer Prize) and the tragedy Winterset (1935), then turned to verse again for High Tor (1936), a romantic comedy. He collaborated with Kurt Weill on the musicals Knickerbocker Holiday (1938) and Lost in the Stars (1949). His last play, The Bad Seed (1954), became a successful film.

Anderson, (James) Maxwell (1888–1959) playwright; born in Atlantic, Pa. After taking an M.A. at Stanford, he served as an editor with the New Republic (1918–24) before achieving his first success, collaborating with Lawrence Stallings on a realistic war drama, What Price Glory? (1924). Thereafter he alternated between romantic blank-verse such as Elizabeth the Queen (1930) and Winterset (1935) and more realistic dramas such as Key Largo (1939) and The Bad Seed (1954).