Maxwell Anderson was a prolific playwright. His first play, WHITE DESERT, was a contemporary verse tragedy that opened in 1923 to little response. Retooling his approach to establish himself, he scored a hit by co-writing the WWI comedy WHAT PRICE GLORY in 1924 and returned to drama for another success, 1927's SATURDAY'S CHILDREN. Later, he returned to verse dramas with his historical plays, 1930's ELIZABETH THE QUEEN and 1933's MARY OF SCOTLAND. He won the Pulitzer Prize for 1933's BOTH YOUR HOUSES, and the New York Drama Critics Circle Award for the highly successful and acclaimed contemporary tragedy WINTERSET, based on the Sacco and Vanzetti trial. He repeated the latter feat in 1936 with HIGH TOR. In 1938, Anderson teamed up with the recently emigrated composer Kurt Weill, who'd fled to New York in the face of Nazi persecution, and sought out the city's top playwrights in search of collaborators. Their first effort was KNICKERBOCKER HOLIDAY, a historical musical set in the time when New York was still the Dutch colony of New Amsterdam. Anderson wrote the book and lyrics, and although the play was a decent-sized success, its "September Song" proved to have a life far beyond its source, thanks in part to a recording by Frank Sinatra. Anderson and Weill collaborated one final time in 1949 on LOST IN THE STARS, a musical based on Alan Paton's novel “Cry, the Beloved Country,” which examined racial tensions in South Africa. Anderson remained a prolific playwright during the '50s, with highlights including 1951's BAREFOOT IN ATHENS and 1954's BAD SEED. He died in Stamford, Connecticut, on February 28, 1956.