“When
the poet makes his perfect selection of a word, he is endowing the word with
life.” – John Drinkwater
English poet and dramatist John Drinkwater, born
on this date in 1882, started writing as a poet in the early 1900s but didn’t
have his first writing success
until 1918 when he switched to drama and penned a play about an American. Abraham Lincoln was not only popular
on the stage, but also spawned a big hit as a movie in the mid-1920s. That piece opened the door for Drinkwater to
become a leading playwright about famous people, including popular shows about Mary
Stuart and Oliver Cromwell.
Once established as a successful
writer, he published the first volume of his Collected Poems in 1923 and
also compiled anthologies of his own works and other young writers of the
time. And, he wrote literary criticism
for several newspapers and magazines before taking over management of the
Birmingham Repertory Theatre. There, he also
became a popular recording artist of spoken word pieces and was still a rising
star when he died suddenly in 1937.
Despite his broadcasting successes, he remained faithful to writing as a primary form of expression. “The written word,” he said solemnly, “is everything.”
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