Playwright, social commentator, screenwriter, theatrical director, and Pulitzer Prize winner George Kelly owes his critical and popular reputation to the social satires he wrote in the 1920s. While his plays became spartan commentaries on the folly of human weakness and subsequently suffered both critically and commercially, Kelly mastered the use of mundane gesture and everyday language as dramatic devices.

Kelly rarely talked about himself, preferring his works to speak for him instead. As a result, detailed biographical information about the playwright is limited, sometimes contradictory, and often unconfirmable. What is certain is that George Edward Kelly was born 16 January 1887 to John Henry Kelly and Mary Costello Kelly in Schuykill Falls, Pennsylvania, a Philadelphia suburb. The ninth of ten children, Kelly numbered among his siblings John B. Kelly, a sculling champion who won an Olympic gold medal in 1924 and was the father of the movie star Grace Kelly (who...