Biography

Brenman-Gibson, Margaret. "The Creation of Plays: With a Specimen Analysis." Psychoanalysis, Creativity, and Literature: A French-American Inquiry, edited by Alan Roland, pp. 178-230. New York: Columbia University Press, 1978

Psychoanalysis of Odets and his works that includes substantial biographical information.

Odets, Nora and Walt Whitman. "Hollywood and its Discontents." American Film XIII No. 7 (May 1988): 28-34.

Excerpt from Odets's 1940 journal that chronicles Odets in Hollywood and his thoughts on "selling out," the movie business, and his interactions with movie stars.

Criticism

Barbour, David, and Seward, Lori. "Waiting for Lefty." The Drama Review 28, No. 4 (Winter 1984): 38-48.

Describes the genesis of Odets's first play and its production, with a complete summary of plot, action, and characters, and lists the original casts from the 1935 debut and subsequent Broadway run.

Bray, Bonita. "Against All Odds: The Progressive Arts Club's Production of Waiting for Lefty." Journal of Canadian Studies 25 No. 3 (Fall 1990): 106-122.

Bray includes a social analysis of Waiting for Lefty in her recounting of a controversial 1935 production of the play during tense civil times in Canada.

Canby, Vincent. "Odets Waves An Olive Leaf in a Last Play." The New York Times (27 March 1994): Sec. 2, 5,32.

In a review of a modern production of The Flowering Peach, Canby analyzes the play within the context of Odets's testimony before HUAC.

"Clifford Odets." Educational Theatre Journal 28 No. 4 (December 1976): 495-500.

Excerpt from an interview in which Odets discusses his early years as an actor and director in the Group Theatre and the influences he found there.

Devlin, Diana. "Period Pieces." Drama No. 151 (1984): 48.

Reviews the collection, Clifford Odets: Six Plays, and argues why Odets's plays are important only as period pieces.

Lahr, John. "Waiting for Odets." The New Yorker, (26 October 1992): pp. 119-22.

Review of a 1992 revival of Awake and Sing! that includes an examination of Odets's work and its current relevance.

Lal, Malashri. "The American Protest Theatre." The Humanities Review 2 No. 2: 16-21.

Places Waiting for Lefty and Awake and Sing! within the context of the protest theater movement of the 1930s.

Miller, Gabriel. "The Chekhovian Vision." In his Clifford Odets, pp. 29-61. New York: The Continuum Publishing Company, 1989.

Aligns Awake and Sing! and Paradise Lost with Anton Chekhov's plays on several points, then uses the comparisons to analyze Odets's plays thematically.

Pearce, Richard. "'Pylon,' 'Awake and Sing!' and the Apocalyptic Imagination of the 30's." Criticism XIII No. 2 (Spring 1971): 131-41.

Examines Awake and Sing! in the context of certain literature of the 1930s which reflected "a feeling of sense-lessness and a threat of apocalypse."

Shuman, R. Baird. "Thematic Consistency in Odets' Early Plays." Revue des Langues Vivant XXXV No. 4 (1969): 415-420.

Explores themes of "nonfulfillment, personal isolation, and loneliness," which permeate Odets's early plays and inform his later works.

Simon, John. "From Broadway to Berlin." New York 24, No. 3 (21 January 1991): 55-6.

Discussion of the plot and characters in The Country Girl in a review of a modern production of the play.