John Mason Brown

For other people named John Brown, see John Brown (disambiguation).

John Mason Brown (July 3, 1900 – March 16, 1969) was an American drama critic and author.^[1]

John Mason Brown
Born	(1900-07-03)July 3, 1900 Louisville, Kentucky, U.S.
Died	March 16, 1969(1969-03-16) (aged 68) New York, New York, U.S.
Occupation	Columnist, journalist
Education	Harvard University
Genre	Drama criticism
Notable works	"Seeing Things" column

Life

Born in Louisville, Kentucky, he graduated from Harvard College in 1923. In 1925, Brown became a theatre critic for Theatre Arts magazine. He then worked for the New York Evening Post from 1929 to 1941 and briefly (1941) for the World-Telegram. He served as a lieutenant in the United States Navy during World War II, beginning in 1942. His book, To All Hands, documents his activities aboard the USS Ancon (AGC-4) during Operation Husky, the invasion of Sicily.^[2]

Upon his return, his "Seeing Things" column appeared in The Saturday Review starting in 1944 until his death. In a 1948 radio broadcast, Brown attacked comic books as "the marijuana of the nursery; the bane of the bassinet; the horror of the house; the curse of the kids; and a threat to the future."^[3] (These charges were echoed during this period by other public figures like Sterling North, J. Edgar Hoover, and most notably Dr. Fredric Wertham, until Congressional hearings led to the mid-1950s self-censorship and rapid shrinkage of the comics industry.)

Brown resigned from the Pulitzer Prize drama jury in 1963 when the advisory board rejected his recommendation, and that of theater historian John Gassner, that the prize go to Edward Albee's Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?.^[4]

He died in New York City. He was inducted, posthumously, into the American Theatre Hall of Fame in 1981.^[5]

See also

• 45th Regiment Kentucky Volunteer Mounted Infantry, the regiment Brown's grandfather commanded during the American Civil War

References

1. Van Gelder, Lawrence (March 17, 1969). "John Mason Brown, Critic, Dead." The New York Times
2. Krempel, Daniel S. (February 1, 2000). Brown, John Mason, Jr. (1900-1969), critic, author, and lecturer. Vol. 1. Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/anb/9780198606697.article.1800155.
3. Thompson, Maggie. "April 21, 1954: Mr. Gaines Goes to Washington," "The 1900s: 10 biggest events from 100 years in comics," CBGXtra.com (December 12, 2005). Archived October 26, 2007, at the Wayback Machine
4. Van Gelder, Lawrence, "John Mason Brown, Critic, Dead"; The New York Times, March 17, 1969
5. The New York Times, March 3, 1981 - 26 Elected to the Theater Hall of Fame

Further reading

• Brown, Preston (July 1939). "John Mason Brown, 1837-1890". Filson Club History Quarterly. 13 (3). Retrieved November 30, 2011.

External links

• John Mason Brown at IMDb
• John Mason Brown Papers (MS Am 1948-1948.1). Houghton Library, Harvard University.
• John Mason Brown Additional Papers, 1933-1984 (MS Am 2096). Houghton Library, Harvard University.