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Edward Childs Carpenter (1872–1950) was an American writer of novels and plays and a stage director in the early through mid-20th century.[1][2]
Edward Childs Carpenter | |
|---|---|
| Born | December 13, 1872 |
| Died | October 7, 1950 (aged 77) |
| Occupations | |
| Years active | 1903–1944 |
Carpenter was born December 13, 1872 (1874 per his gravestone[3]) at Philadelphia, Pennsylvania,[4][5][2] a son of Edward Payson and Frances Bradley "Fanny" (née Childs) Carpenter, of the New England Rehoboth Carpenter family.[6][7]
After leaving school, Carpenter became a newspaperman and quickly rose to the position of financial editor at The Philadelphia Inquirer.[1][8] In 1903 he published his first novel, The Chasm, co-authored with Reginald Wright Kauffman,[1][9] which received favorable reviews.[10] On June 1, 1907, Carpenter married the illustrator Helen Alden Knipe; later they collaborated as writers.
Carpenter began writing plays while working at the Inquirer from 1905 to 1916, beginning with The Dragon Fly in 1905 (with Luther Long), followed by a dramatization of his own 1906 novel Captain Courtesy,[2] which was later made into a silent film of the same title, Captain Courtesy. His longest-running plays were The Cinderella Man in 1916, with 192 performances, The Bachelor Father in 1928, with 264 performances (later made into a film, The Bachelor Father), and Whistling in the Dark, co-authored with Laurence Gross, in 1932, with 144 performances (also later made into a film, Whistling in the Dark).[2]
From 1924 to 1927, Carpenter was president of the Dramatists' Theatre, Inc. In 1922, he became the second elected president of the Dramatists Guild of America. He was re-elected in 1929 continuing on as the Guild's fifth president until 1935.[2] He was a member of the Franklin Inn Club in Philadelphia,[11] and The Players and The Lambs clubs in New York City.
Carpenter died in Torrington, Connecticut[12] on October 7, 1950.[3][4][5] He and his wife, writer and illustrator Helen Alden (née Knipe) Carpenter, are interred in Town Hill Cemetery in New Hartford, Connecticut.[5][3][13]
| Year | Title | Genre |
|---|---|---|
| 1903 | The Chasm | Book (with Reginald Wright Kauffman) |
| 1905 | The Dragon Fly | Play (with John Luther Long) |
| 1906 | Captain Courtesy: A Tale of Southern California | Book (Illustrated by Elenore Plaisted Abbott) |
| 1906 | Remembrance | Play |
| 1907 | The Code of Victor Jallot; a Romance of Old New Orleans | Book (Illustrated by Elenore Plaisted Abbott) |
| 1909 | The Barber of New Orleans | Play |
| 1911 | The Challenge | Play |
| 1912 | The Easy Mark | Book |
| 1913 | The Tongues of Men | Play |
| 1916 | The Cinderella Man | Play |
| 1916 | The Cinderella Man, A Romance of Youth | Book (with Helen Knipe Carpenter) |
| 1917 | The Pipes of Pan | Play |
| 1917 | The Three Bears | Play |
| 1920 | Bab (dramatization of the novel by Mary Roberts Rinehart) | Play, Comedy |
| 1921 | Pot Luck | Play, Comedy |
| 1923 | Connie Goes Home | Play, Comedy |
| 1926 | Scotch Mist | Play, Comedy |
| 1928 | The Bachelor Father | Play |
| 1932 | Whistling in the Dark | Play, Farce, Melodrama |
| 1933 | Melody | Play, Musical, Romance |
| 1934 | Order Please | Play, Comedy |
| 1942 | Shylock's Daughter | Play, Drama (with Helen Knipe Carpenter)[14] |
| 1942 | Queen of the South; from Ancient Rabbinical & Persian Legends | Play[14] |
| 1944 | Public Relations | Play |
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