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Xerox University Microfilms 300 North Zeeb Road Ann Arbor, Michigan 48106 Arts at Lincoln Center in New York City, the reviews of Osborn's plays, Mr. Osborn's personal letters and scrap­ books, his plays, and interviews with him held in New York City and New Milford, Connecticut, in 1972 and 1973. I have also examined the letters and theatre programs sent by Mr* Osborn to the University of Wisconsin where a "Paul Osborn Collection" is being started. Among the materials there are personal letters from Thornton Wilder, Robert Frost, Edward Albee, and Elia Kazan. These materials might be of use to future studies of Paul Osborn. The material has been arranged chronologically. Early attempts to arrange the material into specific areas failed, for the biographical data kept eluding such a for­ mat* Since a man's work reflects his character as well as his character affects his work, most facts and opinions which might be helpful in presenting the man and the play­ wright have been included. It is hoped that the inclusion of so many related areas has not weakened the unity of the work* Chapter I (1901-1928) is mainly a biographical account of Osborn's first twenty-seven years that attempts to present the influences that helped shape both the man and his work. Chapter II (1928-1934) is concerned with the direction that Osborn's writing took in his first four plays for the New York stage. Chapter III (1935-1939) considers three plays that were the logical outgrowth of 93 of heavy iron girders, to play up the murder of the Swedish sea captain, and to play the children as pathological 3 "little devils." Piocator was shortly released from his contract. Although Theresa Helburn took over as director of the production, Osborn received credit for the staging in the program. Miss Helburn told Osborn she would direct but give him the credit, and, if the play were a "hit," she would change the billing in the program. Unfortunately the program needed no change: The Innocent Voyage closed after forty performances. The production opened at the Belasco Theatre in New York on November 15, 1943, with Oscar Homolka, Herbert Berghof, and Clarence Derwent. Stewart Chaney, a Yale classmate of Osborn's, designed the settings. The reviews, although mixed, were not unfavorable. Lewis Nichols of the New York Times said, Mr. Osborn seems to have been uncertain whether to stress the natural comedy of a group of tough citizens trying to control a group of tougher children or to bear down on the melodrama brought about by the murder of a captured Swedish captain. Normal children on a pirate ship would imme­ diately wish to be pirates which Mr. Osborn realizes but which he expresses without the naturalness of his Pud in On Borrowed Time. The stabbing turns the whole mood to one of instant hysteria which is ob­ viously normal but it doesn't blend with the air of fantasy which has gone before.4 Stark Young, in the New Republic, agreed with Nichols that Osborn had not prepared for the intense pas­ sages of the script in the tone or the stage intention 94 and wondered if Osborn wanted the pathological impressions 5 and the horror of the novel in the play. The Catholic World commented that Paul Osborn now comes close to the Barrie menu— the mate of a pirate ship is seen mending the children's underwear— shades of Peter Pan. Hughes had no intention of being Barriesque. On the contrary, the point of his sardonic tale was that children at heart are more piratical than the pirates. Since, however, no one dared put so uncomfortable a thesis on the stage, Os­ born has revamped the material without much re­ gard to the pattern. The result is a play full of action and color but without any point what­ soever .6 Howard Barnes stated that Osborn had established the irrational and fearsome world in which aware children live. He has not always given his play the continuity and dramatic accents that it might have had, but the acid test of his chemistry is the fact that the play builds steadily and with emotional clarity. 'The Innocent Voyage' may not be as memorable, disturbing, or what you will as 'A High Wind in Jamaica,' but it is easy to sit in on these lean days of playgoing.7 George Freedley championed the production at the Belasco Theatre. This morning's column is by way of a remind­ er and an admonition. Paul Osborn's The innocent Voyage. is announced to close on Saturday night at the Belasco. You will certainly regret it if you let slip this chance to see a tender, touch­ ing and terrifying and humorous play beautifully performed. This is the Theatre Guild definitely at its best, performing the function to which it was originally dedicated, that of staging plays which would not likely be done by other Broadway, producers. One regrets that the thousands and thousands of people who would like the play and whose children 95 8 would enjoy it, will never see it. The story of The Innocent Voyage is set in the 1860's and takes place in Jamaica, on the high seas, and in England. Mr. and Mrs. Thorndyke put their five children on a sailing vessel bound from Jamaica to England where the parents plan to join their children later. The ship, how­ ever, is attacked by pirates, who unwittingly take the children with them. In time the children prove to be tougher than the pirates, but a friendship develops between Emily and Captain Jonsen. After a raid on a Swedish vessel, the pirates take the children to the captured ship but leave Emily, whose leg has been accidentally wounded, and the crazed halfbreed Margaret on board with the bound Swedish captain. He asks the two girls to untie him but cannot make them understand. When he sees a knife on the deck and begins to inch toward it, Margaret thinks he is going to kill them. Just as the captain reaches the knife, Emily, seeing that she is hemmed in, becomes hysterical, grabs the knife, and stabs him. When his body is discovered by the pirates, they think Margaret has killed him. When the pirates are captured by the British navy, the court tries to make the children admit that there was a body on board the pirate ship. Emily finally confesses to killing the Swedish captain, but no one believes her. Her confession, however, has established the presence of a body, 96 and Jonsen is hanged. Burns Mantle called The Innocent Voyage "a comedy in three acts"; the plot however, includes rape, a murder, and a hanging. Although Osborn was experienced with comi- tragedy, he had trouble sustaining the humor throughout this play. The first half of the play is a comedy-fantasy, the end of act 2 is a melodrama, and act 3 is a realistic drama. Although act 1 has a slow start, it contains some delightfully comic scenes that give insight into the world of the children. In one such scene the other children have ignored their parents but Emily has bid them a tearful good-bye. As soon as her father and mother have disappear­ ed down the gangplank, however, Emily stops crying mirac­ ulously. RACHEL: (tauntingly) Emily cried 1 EMILY: (with great superiority) Oh, you are stupid! RACHEL: Then why did you cry? EMILY: You just didn't know enough to cry. RACHEL: I did, too! EMILY: Then why didn't you? EDWARD: Why should she? EMILY: Oh, you are all stupid! That was a parting! People always cry at partings! (There's a moment's pause as the truth of this statement sinks into the children's minds.) EDWARD: They do? EMILY: Of course they do! If they are mannerly.

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