Maurice Valency
Maurice Valency was a playwright, author, critic, and popular professor of Comparative Literature at Columbia University, best known for his award-winning adaptations of plays by Jean Giraudoux and Friedrich Dürrenmatt. He wrote several original plays, but is best known for his adaptations of the plays of others. Valency's version of The Madwoman of Chaillot would become the basis of the Jerry Herman musical Dear World on Broadway.
He is also noted for his book The Flower and the Castle: An Introduction to Modern Drama. John Gassner in his review of this book said that Mr. Valency brought to his work "a lifetime of study and experience as well as a viewpoint both Olympian and engaged." Valency also wrote television plays, adaptations of librettos, novels, and academic works on Chekhov, Strindberg, Ibsen and Shaw.
Life
Maurice Valency was educated in New York City, getting a Bachelor of Arts degree in 1923 at City College, and at Columbia University getting a Bachelor of Laws degree in 1927, and a Ph.D. in 1938. In 1936 he married the artist Janet Cornell; they remained married for 60 years until Valency's death in New York City at the age of 93.Valency was a professor of comparative literature at Columbia and also taught dramatic literature at Juilliard and at Brooklyn College. He spoke seven languages.
Awards
- New York Drama Critics Circle Award for best foreign play, 1949, for his adaptation of The Madwoman of Chaillot by Jean Giraudoux
- New York Drama Critics Circle Award for best foreign play, 1954, for his adaptation of Ondine by Jean Giraudoux
- New York Drama Critics Circle Award for best foreign play, 1959, for his adaptation of The Visit by Friedrich Dürrenmatt
- Tony Award nomination for Best Play, 1959, for his adaptation of The Visit
- Ford Foundation Fellowship, 1958
- Guggenheim Fellowship, 1960
Works
Adaptations
The Madwoman of Chaillot, Pub: Random House, New York, 1947, OCLC Num: 639892557The Enchanted: a comedy in three acts, Pub: Random House, New York, 1950, OCLC Num: 818215The Virtuous Island: a play in one act, Pub: Samuel French, New York, 1956, OCLC Num: 2070415The Queen's Gambit: a romantic comedy in three acts, Pub: Samuel French, New York, 1956, OCLC Num:: 504510488Four plays: The Madwoman of Chaillot, The Apollo of Bellac, The Enchanted, Ondine, adapted, and with an introduction by Maurice Valency, Pub: Hill and Wang, New York, 1958, OCLC Num: 70459302The visit: a play in three acts, Pub: Random House, New York, 1958, OCLC Num: 1379852Feathertop, Pub: Dramatists Play Service, New York, 1998La Périchole, The American University Theatre, 1970, OCLC Num: 690595158- ''The Reluctant King''
Original works
The palace of pleasure: an anthology of the novella, Pub: Capricorn Books, New York, 1960, OCLC Num: 296836In praise of love: an introduction to the love-poetry of the Renaissance, Pub: Macmillan, New York, 1958, OCLC Num: 313778The Thracian horses, Pub: Dramatists Play Service, New York, 1963, OCLC Num: 2684110The flower and the castle: an introduction to modern drama, Pub: Macmillan, New York, 1963, OCLC Num: 330053The breaking string: the plays of Chekhov, Pub: Oxford University Press, New York, 1966, OCLC Num: 712186The cart and the trumpet: the plays of George Bernard Shaw, Pub: Oxford University Press, New York, 1973, OCLC Num: 627998Savonarola, 1974Regarding Electra: a play in one or two acts, Pub: Dramatists Play Service, New York, 1976, OCLC Num: 2918272Conversation with a sphinx: a play in one act, Pub: Dramatists Play Service, New York, 1980, OCLC Num: 6925360The end of the world: an introduction to contemporary drama, Pub: Oxford University Press, New York, 1980, OCLC Num: 5051656Ashby: a novel, Pub: Schocken Books, New York, 1984, Julie: a novel, Pub: New Amsterdam, New York, 1989, Tragedy, Pub: New York: New Amsterdam, 1991,Television plays
- 1951: Battleship Bismarck CBS-TV
- 1953: Toine, CBS-TV
- 1953: The Man without a Country, CBS-TV
- 1954: The Apollo of Bellac, CBS-TV
- 1955: She Stoops to Conquer, CBS-TV
- 1956: The Virtuous Island, ABC-TV
- 1957: The Second Stranger, CBS-TV
- 1957: Feathertop, CBS-TV