Jesse Lynch Williams

Jesse Lynch Williams (August 17, 1871 – September 14, 1929) was an American author and dramatist. He won the first Pulitzer Prize for Drama for his play Why Marry? (1917). He was a journalist for three New York publications and co-founded the Princeton Alumni Weekly and the Princeton Triangle Club.

Early life

Williams was born in Sterling, Illinois, on August 17, 1871, to Elizabeth Brown (Riddle) and Rev. Meade Creighton Williams,<ref name="Appleton">Template:Cite book</ref> pastor of a Presbyterian church in St. Louis, Missouri.<ref name="JLW dies" /> His father wrote Early Mackinac and was the editor of a Presbyterian journal. Jesse's brothers were David. R. Williams, of St. Louis, and Terrell Williams, a law school professor of Washington University in St. Louis.<ref name="JLW dies" />

His grandfather, also Jesse Lynch Williams, was appointed by President Abraham Lincoln as the government director of the roads. He was an engineer and constructor for the Union Pacific Railroad.<ref name="Appleton" />

Education and career

Williams studied at Beloit Academy.<ref name="Appleton" /> He began his literary career in college. He won the Nassau Literary Magazine short story contest in his junior year.<ref name="Princeton">Template:Cite web From Alexander Leitch, A Princeton Companion, Princeton University Press (1978).</ref> He received his bachelor's degree in 1892.<ref name="Bryer">Template:Cite book</ref> As a graduate student at Princeton University, he wrote Princeton Stories (1895)<ref name="Gale" /> which often featured the daily life of an undergraduate football player. He graduated from Princeton with a master's degree in 1895.<ref name="Princeton" /> In 1898, he wrote The History of Princeton University with John de Witt.<ref name="Appleton" /> He and Booth Tarkington co-founded the Triangle Club at Princeton<ref name="Bryer" /> and edited The Lit. For three years, beginning in 1900, he co-founded and was the first editor of the Princeton Alumni Weekly.<ref name="Princeton" /> Robert Frost wrote a recommendation to the University of Michigan regarding his suitability for the Fellowship of Creative Arts. Frost indicated that Williams was relevant, open-minded, practical, a "good all-around participator", and, along with his wife, good company. During the 1925–1926 academic year, he held the Fellowship in Creative Arts at the University of Michigan.<ref name="Gale">Template:Cite book</ref><ref name="Frost">Template:Cite book</ref> He received an honorary Doctor of Letters from Princeton in 1919.<ref name="Princeton" />

Beginning in 1893, he was a reporter for The Sun, and wrote fiction on the side.<ref name="Appleton" /><ref name="Bryer" /> He joined the staff at the New York Commercial Advertiser (The New York Globe) from 1895 to 1897, followed by the Scribner's Magazine. From 1900 to 1903, he was the editor of the Princeton Alumni Weekly, after which he worked full-time writing plays and novels.<ref name="Appleton" />

He wrote a number of short stories starting in the 1890s.<ref name="Appleton" /> He wrote four plays and six novels by 1929, including Why Marry? (1917), for which he was awarded the first Pulitzer Prize for Drama.<ref name="Princeton" /> He wrote the play The Stolen Story (1906), based upon his times as a reporter,<ref name="Bryer" /><ref name="Gale" /> which he first wrote as a short story, The Stolen Story and Other Newspaper Stories. He wrote the play The Stolen Story (1906), based upon his times as a reporter.<ref name="Gale" /> His plays Why Marry? (1917) and Why Not (1922), and Lovely Lady (1925) were produced on Broadway.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> Why Not explores the experiences of divorce. Lovely Lady is about the attempts of a lady to attract the attentions of a lawyer and his son.<ref name="Bryer" /> His novels and stories include Princeton Stories,<ref name="Princeton" /> The Adventures of a Freshman (1899), The Girl and the Game (1908), The Married Life of the Frederic Carrolls (1910),<ref name="Appleton" /> and She Knew She Was Right.

He was a member of the Authors League of America, the National Institute of Arts and Letters, and other organizations, in which he sometimes had a leadership role.<ref name="Appleton" /><ref name="Gale" />

Marriage and children

He was married to Alice Laidlaw (1872–1960),<ref name="Frost" /> daughter of Elizabeth C. Onderdonk and Henry Bell Laidlaw, on June 1, 1898, in New York. They had three children, Henry Meade, Jesse Lynch, and Laidlaw Onderdonk Williams.<ref name="Leonard">Template:Cite news</ref> They lived in Princeton, New Jersey. Alice graduated from Veltin School for Girls in 1892. She was a member of the Audubon Society and the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, and a number of organizations, including sitting on the executive board of the New Jersey Equal Franchise Society.<ref name="Leonard" /> She wrote a book titled Sunday Suppers (1912).<ref name="Frost" /><ref name="Leonard" />

Death

Williams died of a heart attack on September 14, 1929, at the home of Assistant Secretary of the Navy Theodore Douglas Robinson in Jordanville, New York,<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> or Herkimer, New York.<ref name="JLW dies">Template:Cite news</ref><ref name="Gale" />

External links

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