John Waldhorn Gassner (January 30, 1903 – April 2, 1967) was a Hungarian-born American theatre historian, critic, educator, and anthologist.
Early life and education
At birth in the town of Máramarossziget, Hungary (today in Romania), he was given the name Jeno Waldhorn Gassner. He emigrated to the United States in 1911 with his family and soon discovered theatre performance at his local school. Only four years in New York, he appeared in a school production of
The Tempest. Gassner graduated from Dewitt Clinton High School in The Bronx. In his youth and early adulthood, he was a supporter of
Socialism.
Gassner received a Bachelor of Arts (1923) degree and a Master of Arts (1924) degree from Columbia University.
Writing career
Gassner was prolific and successful as a writer and editor. He began his career as a book reviewer at
The New York Herald-Tribune (1925–1928), also wrote frequently for
New Theatre Magazine (1934–1937),
The Forum (1937),
Time Magazine (1938),
Direction (1937–1941),
One Act Play Magazine (1937–1941), and among several others,
The Tulane Drama Review (1957–1967). He became a member of TDR's advisory board in 1958.
Literary, theatrical, and academic career
From 1931 to 1944, he was a play editor and later chairman of the Play Department of the
Theatre Guild.
In 1940, he joined Erwin Piscator's Dramatic Workshop at the New School, where he taught playwriting and the history of theatre until 1949.
In 1956, Gassner accepted the prestigious post of Sterling Professor of Playwriting and Dramatic Literature at the Yale Drama School and remained there until his death. He also taught at Columbia University, Queens College, and Hunter College.
Gassner discovered and mentored writers who later attained fame in America and abroad, including Arthur Miller and Tennessee Williams. These two, in particular, shaped the development of the canon of American drama after World War II.[George Hunka, "Style versus Substance: American Theatre Criticism since 1945," in: Theatre Criticism: Changing Landscapes, ed. Duska Radosavljevic, Bloomsbury 2016, pp. 39–50, here: 40-1.] Gassner mentored not only theater artists, but also editors like Edmund Fuller.
Gassner died of a heart ailment at the age of 64.[Loney, Glenn. “In Memoriam: John Gassner.” Educational Theatre Journal, vol. 19, no. 3, Johns Hopkins University Press, 1967, pp. 392–93.]
Anthologies and monographs (selection)
Gassner's anthologies appeared frequently and became a staple of the dramatic literature publishing world. Long after his death, even into the 1990s, Crown Publishers was issuing anthologies of
The Best American Plays edited by other people but as part of the series called
John Gassner Best Plays Series. His work as an editor and anthologist was ambitious enough to prompt
Milton Esterow to remark in a review that "hardly a day seems to pass without the publication of a book by John Gassner."
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Best Plays of the Early American Theatre: From the Beginning to 1916
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The Reader's Encyclopedia of World Drama
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Twenty-five Best Plays of the Modern American Theatre: Early Series
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Twenty Best European plays on the American Stage
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Best American Plays (several different anthologies)
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Eugene O'Neill
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Producing the Play
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Masters of the Drama
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Treasury of the Theater
Secondary sources
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Evelyn Mary MacQueen: John Gassner: Critic and Teacher. Ann Arbor, Mich., University Microfilms 1972, Dissertation, University of Michigan, 1966.
Archival sources
Gassner's records are kept at the Ransom Center
and, to a smaller extent, at Sterling Memorial Library at Yale.
[See the John Gassner Papers (MS 560) and select items in Yale’s Theatre Guild Archive (CAL MSS 436) at the Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library.]
