Harley Granville-Barker

Granville-Barker, Harley 

Born Nov. 25, 1877, in London; died Aug. 31, 1946, in Paris. English playwright, historian, and theater figure. One of the leaders of the Court Theater (beginning in 1904).

Granville-Barker contributed to the establishment on the stage of the plays of Shaw and Ibsen. His theoretical works, which were aimed against escapist, philistine drama and affirmed the principles of critical realism, included A National Theater (1907, with W. Archer), The Exemplary Theater (1922), and On Dramatic Method (1931). Granville-Barker’s most important work was Prefaces to Shakespeare (vols. 1–5, 1927–49). His plays The Marrying of Anne Leite (1901). The Voysey Inheritance (1905). Waste (1907). The Madras House (1910). and The Ballot Vote (1917) are realistic, slice-of-life dramas.

WORKS

The Secret Life. London, 1923.
On Dramatic Method. New York. 1956.
Prefaces to Shakespeare, vols. 1–2. London [1958].
The Voysey Inheritance: A Play. [London, 1959.]

REFERENCE

Henderson, A. European Dramatists [5th ed.]. New York, 1926.

IU. I. KAGARLITSKII