George Pierce Baker

Baker c. 1886

George Pierce Baker (April 4, 1866 – January 6, 1935)<ref>American National Biography</ref> was a professor of English at Harvard and Yale and author of Dramatic Technique, a codification of the principles of drama.

Biography

Baker graduated in the Harvard College class of 1887, served as Editor-in-Chief of The Harvard Monthly, and taught in the English Department at Harvard from 1888 until 1924. He started his "47 workshop" class in playwriting in 1905. He was instrumental in creating the Harvard Theatre Collection at Harvard University Library. In 1908 he began the Harvard Dramatic Club, acting as its sponsor, and in 1912 he founded the 47 Workshop to provide a forum for the performance of plays developed within his English class.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> He was elected a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 1914.<ref name=AAAS>Template:Cite web</ref> Unable to persuade Harvard to offer a degree in playwriting, he moved to Yale University in 1925, where he helped found the Yale School of Drama. He remained there until his retirement in 1933.<ref name="cgt">Template:Cite book</ref>

Baker was Hyde lecturer and taught a seminar on Shakespeare and English drama at the Sorbonne University (Paris) in 1907-08.<ref>Archival source: CARAN, Paris. AJ/16-4750 (1907) p. 67</ref> He lectured at other French universities and gave several series of lectures at Lowell Institute. He has edited books on drama and written several himself, including Shakespeare's Development as a Dramatist (1907).<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> His Dramatic Technique (1919) offered a codification in English of the principles of the well-made play.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref><ref>Template:Cite book</ref>

George Pierce Baker was the father of George P. Baker who was dean of Harvard Business School.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

The 47 Workshop at Harvard

Baker wrote of the 47 Workshop:

Template:Blockquote Participants in the 47 Workshop include the following: Template:Colbegin

• George Abbott<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
• Christina Hopkinson Baker<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
• Faith Baldwin<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
• Charlotte Rebecca Woglom Bangs<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
• Philip Barry<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
• Mary Porter Beegle<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
• S.N. Behrman<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
• Rachel Barton Butler<ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref>James Fisher, Felicia Hardison Londré, Historical Dictionary of American Theater: Modernism (Rowman & Littlefield 2017): 113-114. Template:ISBN</ref>
• Henry Fisk Carlton<ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Cite news</ref>
• Hallie Flanagan<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
• Kenneth Sawyer Goodman
• Dorothy Heyward<ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Cite news</ref>
• Ben Hecht
• Sidney Howard<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
• Samuel Hume<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
• Lute Johnson<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
• Charles Augustus Keeler<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
• Edward Morrell Massey<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
• Stanley McCandless<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
• Eugene O'Neill<ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Cite news</ref>
• Hubert Osborne<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
• Josephine Preston Peabody<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
• Eugene Pillot<ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Cite news</ref>
• Channing Pollock (writer)<ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Cite news</ref>
• Kenneth Raisbeck<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
• Florence Ryerson
• Edward Sheldon<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
• Elizabeth Higgins Sullivan<ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Cite news</ref>
• Chauncey Brewster Tinker<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
• Josephine Van De Grift<ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Cite news</ref>
• Adelaide E. Wadsworth<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
• Maurine Dallas Watkins<ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Cite news</ref>
• Thomas Wolfe
• C. Antoinette Wood<ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Cite news</ref>
• Robert Sterling Yard<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
• Robert Mearns Yerkes<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
• Stark Young<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

Further reading

• Bordelon, Suzanne. "A Reassessment of George Pierce Baker's" The Principles of Argumentation": Minimizing the Use of Formal Logic in Favor of Practical Approaches." College Composition and Communication 57.4 (2006): 763-788 online.
• Hinkel, Cecil Ellsworth. "An Analysis and evaluation of the 47 workshop of George Pierce Baker" ( Diss. The Ohio State University, 1959) onlineTemplate:Dead link.
• Kempf, Christopher. "The Play’sa Thing: The 47 Workshop and the “Crafting” of Creative Writing." American Literary History 32.2 (2020): 243-272.
• Kinne, Wisner Payne. George Pierce Baker and the American Theatre (Harvard University Press, 2013).
• Reilly, Kara. "George Pierce Baker: A century of dramaturgs teaching playwriting." Contemporary Theatre Review 23.2 (2013): 107-113.

External links

• Collection Guide, George Pierce Baker Papers, Houghton Library, Harvard University
• Template:Gutenberg author
• Template:Internet Archive author
• Audio recording of Baker's 1920 play The Pilgrim Spirit at LostPlays.com
• Dramatic Technique at the Internet Archive
• George Pierce Baker papers (MS 51). Manuscripts and Archives, Yale University Library. [1]
• George Pierce Baker Papers. Yale Collection of American Literature, Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library.