EDNA FERBER
( B. 15 August 1885, Kalamazoo, Michigan -- D. 16 April 1968, New York, New York)

Edna Ferber was born in 1885 in Kalamazoo, Michigan, but she was raised in Appleton, Wisconsin. Her tremendous creative output began at age seventeen, when, following graduation from high school, she took a reporting job on the Appleton Daily Crescent; and she soon advanced to the Milwaukee Journal and the Chicago Tribune.

She discarded her first novel because she didn’t think it was good enough; however her mother retrieved it and had it published as Dawn O’Hara in 1911. From then on, Ferber was one of America’s most popular and esteemed authors.

Perhaps her greatest gift was her enormous sense of curiosity: ideas for many of her novels and stories came from snatches of conversation that happened to catch her interest. “I have never been on the Mississippi or in the deep South,” she once said. “I wrote Show Boat [which is set in the South]. I know nothing of farms or farming, which forms the background of So Big [which won a Pulitzer Prize in 1925]. I wrote Cimarron after spending just ten days in Oklahoma.” She spent more time in Texas, and her novel, Giant, about that state and its citizens infuriated the Texas populace. Yet, it sold five million copies and became one of the motion picture industry’s classic films, starring Elizabeth Taylor, Rock Hudson, and James Dean.

Although Kaufman was generally gloomy and morose, Ferber was just the opposite, sunny and happy. For example, at one point in her career she rented the New York City penthouse of Ivar Kreuger, Sweden’s match-king. Upon moving into the apartment, she discovered to her delight that Kreuger’s various fruit trees on the terrace actually bore fruit. She promptly picked the fruit, jellied and bottled it, and joyfully sent the delicacies to her friends under the label: “Edna Ferber Farm Products, Park Avenue, New York.”

Ferber had written several stage works prior to the beginning of her association with Kaufman in 1924, most of historic interest only; among them Our Mrs. McChestney, The Eldest, and $1200 a Year.

She liked being with people and did not believe in going to the theater alone -- Her very favorite theater companion was Noel Coward.

Her death in 1968, at age 83, followed a long battle with cancer.

Ferber's two most successful theatrical ventures were, of course, Show Boat which she called her "oil well" and The Royal Family (written with Kaufman). The latter also proved to be her one brief chance to act out on her fantasy of actually being on stage. When Ethel Barrymore declined to play the lead which was written with her in mind, Ferber's hankering for stage legs of her own grew stronger and stronger. While Ferber's "George, how 'bout me?" went unheeded for the Broadway production, she did get her chance during a revival in Maplewood, New Jersey when Cheryl Crawford turned fairy godmother and cast her to play the lead for a one-week run. To her surprise all the critics came. Some like Brooks Atkinson were "courtly" but a star was NOT born and Ferber, presumably cleansed of the "whim" to act, "settled down to her ten-finger exercise for the rest of her days."