author
George Cochrane Hazelton
1868–1921
An American actor turned playwright, he helped bring literary and historical figures to the stage in popular early-20th-century dramas. He is especially remembered for Mistress Nell, The Raven: The Love Story of Edgar Allan Poe, and the cross-cultural hit The Yellow Jacket.
1 Audiobook
Mistress Nell: A Merry Tale of a Merry Time
by George Cochrane Hazelton
About the author
Born in Boscobel, Wisconsin, on January 20, 1868, he first built his career as an actor, performing with major stage figures including Lawrence Barrett, Edwin Booth, and Helena Modjeska. That experience in the theater shaped the dramatic, audience-friendly style that later made his writing successful.
His early play The Raven: The Love Story of Edgar Allan Poe was adapted for film, and Mistress Nell became one of his best-known stage successes. He also co-wrote The Yellow Jacket, a widely noted play that drew on Chinese theatrical conventions for American audiences, showing his interest in visually distinctive and unusual stage forms.
Beyond playwriting, he wrote The National Capitol, its Architecture, Art and History. Papers preserved by the New York Public Library suggest a busy professional life in the theater, with scripts, promptbooks, correspondence, and business records surviving after his death in New York City in June 1921.