Brian Hooker (poet)

William Brian Hooker (November 2, 1880 – December 28, 1946) was an American poet, educator, lyricist, and librettist. He was born in New York City, the son of Elizabeth Work and William Augustus Hooker, who was a mining engineer for the New York firm of Hooker and Lawrence. His family was well known in Hartford, Connecticut having descended from Thomas Hooker, a prominent Puritan religious and colonial leader who founded the Colony of Connecticut.^[2]

Cover of Hooker's 1908 romance novel The Right Man

Brian Hooker
Born	William Brian Hooker (1880-11-02)November 2, 1880 New York City, New York United States
Died	December 28, 1946(1946-12-28) (aged 66) New London, Connecticut, U.S.
Nationality	American
Education	Yale University
Occupations	Poet playwright novelist
Known for	Cyrano de Bergerac (1923) The Vagabond King (1925)
Spouse	Doris Redfield Cooper[1]
Children	3 daughters
Parent(s)	Elizabeth Work William Augustus Hooker
Relatives	Thomas Hooker

Hooker attended Yale College in the class of 1902, where he was a writer,^[3] editor and business manager for campus humor magazine The Yale Record.^[4] He was an editor of the Yale Record collection Yale Fun (1901).^[5] He died in New London, Connecticut, aged 66.

Works

Hooker's poetry was published in The Century Magazine, The Forum, Hampton's Magazine, Harper's Magazine, McClure's Magazine, Scribner's Magazine, Smart Set, and the Yale Review.^[6]

Hooker wrote the librettos for two operas by Horatio Parker, Mona (opera)^[7] and Fairyland.^[8] He co-wrote the libretto and lyrics for Rudolf Friml's 1925 operetta The Vagabond King, and is noted for his 1923 English translation of Edmond Rostand's Cyrano de Bergerac.

José Ferrer played Cyrano in a highly acclaimed 1946 Broadway version of the play which used this translation, winning a Tony Award for his performance. At the same time, Ralph Richardson was also appearing as Cyrano in a London production of the play, again using this translation. Ferrer then won an Oscar as Best Actor for the 1950 film adaptation, which used the same translation.

References

Notes

1. "Brian Hooker Dies; Noted For 'Cyrano'", The New York Times, December 29, 1946, p. 37. ProQuest Historical Newspapers, Ann Arbor, Michigan; subscription access through The University of North Carolina Chapel Hill Library.
2. Hooker, Edward; Hooker, Margaret Huntington (1909). "The descendants of Rev. Thomas Hooker, Hartford, Connecticut, 1586-1908 : being an account of what is known of Rev. Thomas Hooker's family in England : and more particularly concerning himself and his influence upon the early history of our country : also all items of interest which it has been possible to gather concerning the early generations of Hookers and their descendants in America". Rochester, N.Y. : Margaret Huntington Hooker, 1909 – via Internet Archive.
3. Bronson, Francis W., Thomas Caldecott Chubb, and Cyril Hume, eds. (1922) The Yale Record Book of Verse: 1872-1922. New Haven: Yale University Press. pp. 13-14, 54-57.
4. "William Brian Hooker". Obituary Record of Graduates Of Yale University: Deceased During the Year 1946-1947. New Haven: Yale University. January 1, 1948. p. 63.
5. Hastings, Wells, Brian Hooker, and Henry Ely, eds. (1901) Yale Fun. New Haven: Yale Record. p. 1.
6. Poems, Yale University Press 1915, p. iv.
7. Meneer, Nathanael (November 30, 2012). "Horatio Parker's Mona: an experiment in American grand opera" – via open.bu.edu. {{cite journal}}: Cite journal requires |journal= (help)
8. Parker, Horatio W; Hooker, Brian (November 30, 1915). "Fairyland: an opera in three acts". G. Schirmer – via Open WorldCat.

Bibliography

• Green, Stanley (1976), Encyclopaedia of the Musical Theatre, Dodd, Mead, p. 195. ISBN 0-396-07221-6
• Yardley, Jonathan (2005) 'Cyrano,' Gaining in the Translation^{[dead link‍]}, The Washington Post, February 2, 2005, p. C01. Accessed July 10, 2011.

External links

• Works by or about Brian Hooker at the Internet Archive
• Selected poetry, fiction and essays by Brian Hooker, from the archives of Harper's Magazine.
• Books by Brian Hooker at Google Books.