Actor, director, dramatist, and screenwriter, as well as author of several novels and memoirs, Garson Kanin is remembered today primarily for a single play, Born Yesterday (1946), the first and most successful of his works for the stage. Born Yesterday found a place in the hearts of several generations of enthusiastic Kanin followers, and it is a popular play even today, nearly thirty-five years after its first performance. It has made the lists of best American plays and appears in several anthologies. Born Yesterday, deservedly the highlight of Kanin's career as a dramatist, is scarcely the only play Kanin wrote, nor is it the only one of his plays worthy of attention. Considering the range of his activities in other fields, however, it is remarkable that he wrote and directed a play which holds such a permanent place in American drama.

Kanin was born in Rochester, New York, the...