This is the most thorough and comprehensive biography to date of writer and activist Paul Green (1894-1981). Winner of the Pulitzer Prize for his play In Abraham’s Bosom and author of the pioneering symphonic drama The Lost Colony, Green was a literary figure of national prominence during the 1920s and 1930s. During this time of experimentation and boldness in American theater, Green was praised by directors and critics, had a play chosen for the collection Year’s Best Plays three times, and gained the respect of African American actors longing for meaningful roles. Green’s personal and political convictions fully complemented the social-realist leanings of his art, a literary output comprising plays in many forms, essays, folklore collections, novels, and filmscripts. In places like his native North Carolina, Green stood apart even from other proponents of integration by claiming that sexual as well as social intermingling of the races was a natural occurrence in human society. Drawing on his complete access to Green’s papers and on interviews with surviving family members, John Herbert Roper covers all the important aspects of Green’s life and career from his childhood, military service, education, travels, and marriage to his many literary undertakings and friendships. By word and deed, Paul Green spread the faith of liberalism across the New South, which he insistently called the
Real South.
Long after literary fashion had left him behind, he wrote daily and remained at the forefront of causes concerning race relations, militarism, women’s and workers’ rights, and capital punishment. As an artist and an individual, Green set an early and enduring standard of courage and forthrightness.