author
Clyde Fitch
1865–1909
A star playwright of turn-of-the-century Broadway, he wrote sharp social comedies, melodramas, and historical dramas that made him one of the most successful American dramatists of his era. His plays captured the manners, ambitions, and anxieties of Gilded Age society with a strong feel for the stage.
5 Audiobooks
The girl with the green eyes : A play in four acts
by Clyde Fitch
The climbers : A play in four acts
by Clyde Fitch
The Smart Set: Correspondence & Conversations
by Clyde Fitch
Her own way : A play in four acts
by Clyde Fitch
About the author
Born in Elmira, New York, in 1865, Clyde Fitch studied at Amherst College and went on to build a remarkable career in the theater. By the 1890s and early 1900s, he had become one of the best-known playwrights on the American stage, admired for both his productivity and his instinct for what audiences wanted to see.
Fitch wrote dozens of plays, including original works and adaptations, moving easily between comedy, social satire, melodrama, and historical drama. Among the titles most often associated with him are Beau Brummell, The Climbers, and The Girl with the Green Eyes. His work often focused on the social world around him, especially the polish, pressure, and pretenses of fashionable life.
He died in 1909 in Châlons-sur-Marne, France, at just 44 years old. Even so, his influence on American theater was lasting: he helped prove that an American playwright could be both artistically ambitious and broadly popular on Broadway.