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Come Back, William Inge
- Abstract
A half-century ago, Arthur Miller and Tennessee Williams were universally reckoned the finest American dramatists of the postwar era. They still are. In 1959, however, the short list also included William Inge, and there were those who ranked Inge higher than either of his contemporaries. He was certainly more successful than Miller or Williams, both of whom already had notably uneven track records on Broadway by the end of the 1950’s. Inge, by contrast, was the theatrical success story of the decade. His first four plays, Come Back, Little Sheba (1950), Picnic (1953), Bus Stop (1955), and The Dark at the Top of the Stairs (1957), were all box-office hits that were made into equally popular Hollywood films, and Picnic also won a Pulitzer Prize. With the exception of Neil Simon, no other modern American playwright has had a comparable run of good luck.
Inge’s luck ran out at the end of 1959 when A Loss of Roses, his fifth play, closed after only 25 performances. He rebounded with Splendor in the Grass, his first screenplay. Directed by Elia Kazan, it became one of the most popular movies of 1961 and won its author an Oscar. But Splendor in the Grass was Inge’s last success of any kind. His next two plays received sharply unfavorable reviews and closed quickly, and the two novels that he later wrote after turning his back on Broadway were poorly received as well. Unable to regain his literary footing and afraid that he would never again write well, a despondent Inge committed suicide in 1973.
About the Author
Terry Teachout, COMMENTARY’s regular music critic and the drama critic of the Wall Street Journal, served as an editorial writer for the New York Daily News from 1987 to 1993. His "Rhythm Man: A Life of Louis Armstrong" is forthcoming next year from Harcourt.
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