As a major American playwright, producer, and director, Elmer Rice contributed significantly to the development of a mature American drama in a career which spanned over fifty years. Although he is perhaps best remembered for his dramas of social significance, he also wrote mystery melodramas, romantic comedies, fantasies, and satirical comedies. Of the nearly thirty Rice Plays produced in New York, two are considered great American plays, several were major commercial successes, and several were crashing failures.

Rice was born Elmer Leopold Reisenstein and raised in upper Manhattan. At age fourteen, after only two years of high school, his family's financial difficulties forced him to go to work. In 1907 he worked as a claims clerk, and from 1908 to 1914 he worked in his cousin's law firm. During this time he earned a New York State Board of Regents certificate, the equivalent of a high-school diploma, and attended the New...