SOURCE: Hadari, Atar. “The Failed Verse Theatre of Maxwell Anderson.” American Drama 8, no. 2 (spring 1999): 83-98.

In the following essay, Hadari explains why he considers Anderson's verse theater to be, ultimately, a failure.

When Maxwell Anderson lived in upstate New York his nearest neighbor was John Howard Lawson, a playwright seven years his junior who'd managed with his first play to obtain a production from the Theatre Guild and a royalty advance of five hundred dollars. Five hundred dollars was the sum Anderson had had to borrow to make the down-payment on his new farm and the amount awed him. On being invited over one night to hear a reading of the play (Roger Boomer), Anderson concluded “If that's a play, I can certainly write a better one.” Nor was it the production, the genre or any love of footlights, players or papier maché that caught his fancy—his...