BIBLIOGRAPHY

Demastes, William W. Clifford Odets: A Research and Production Sourcebook. New York: Greenwood Press, 1991, 209 p.

Offers exhaustive lists of works by and about Odets as well as thorough descriptions of each play, including characters, plot summary, and critical overview for each.

BIOGRAPHIES

Brenman-Gibson, Margaret. Clifford Odets: American Playwright: The Years from 1906 to 1940. New York: Atheneum, 1981, 749 p.

Focuses on Odets' psychological characteristics, pro viding insight into the person behind the plays.

Mendelsohn, Michael J. Clifford Odets: Humane Dramatist. Deland, Fla.: Everett/Edwards, 1969, 138 p.

Standard biographical material supplemented by personal interviews and correspondence with Odets.

Shuman, R. Baird. Clifford Odets. New York: Twayne Publishers, 1962, 160 p.

Argues that Odets' later plays are as important as his earlier work and explores allegorical significance in all his writings.

Weales, Gerald. Odets the Playwright. New York: Methuen, 1985, 205 p.

Studies all of Odets' writings, from stage plays to screen plays, and includes newspaper interviews, reviews, and memoirs.

AUTHOR COMMENTARY

Odets, Clifford. "Genesis of a Play." The New York Times (1 February 1942): IX, 3.

Offers extracts from his journal regarding the composition of Clash by Night in order to "demonstrate how certain remote thoughts and feelings collect themselves around a theatrical spine and become a play."

——. 'Two Approaches to the Writing of a Play." The New York Times (22 April 1951): II, 1-2.

Discusses the difference between creating a play to express "a personal state of being" and merely "fabricating" one.

——. The Time is Ripe: The 1940 Journal of Clifford Odets. New York: Grove Press, 1988, 369 p.

An in-depth look at one year in the playwright's life, in which he surveys the creative process, his mind-set, and his career to date.

OVERVIEWS AND GENERAL STUDIES

Atkinson, Brooks. "Clifford Odets Revealed as the Most Promising New American Dramatist." The New York Times (10 March 1935): VIII, 1.

Considers Odets "a new dramatist of exciting potentialities" and praises "Waiting for Lefty" and Awake and Sing!

Cantor, Harold. Clifford Odets: Playwright-Poet. Metuchen, N.J.: The Scarecrow Press, 1978, 235 p.

Attempts to correct the "mistaken and simplistic view" that Odets is a playwright whose works no longer have relevance or validity.

Miller, Gabriel. Clifford Odets. New York: Continuum, 1989, 253 p.

Seeks to "present Odets as a playwright who experimented with dramatic form while giving significant thematic and social concerns that evolved over the course of his career."

Murray, Edward. Clifford Odets: The Thirties and After. New York: Frederick Ungar Publishing Co., 1968, 229 p.

Maintains that "Clifford Odets is the only American dramatist, with the possible exception of Edward Albee, worthy to be considered in the same class with Eugene O'Neill, Arthur Miller, and Tennessee Williams."

Pells, Richard H. "The Radical Stage and the Hollywood Film in the 1930s." In his Radical Visions and American Dreams: Culture and Social Thought in the Depression Years, pp. 252-91. Middletown, Conn.: Wesleyan University Press, 1984.

Considers how Odets' plays were intimately related to the political and social conditions of the 1930s.

Styan, J. L. "Realism in America: Early Variations." In his Modern Drama in Theory and Practice, Volume 1: Realism and Naturalism, pp. 122-36. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1981.

Examines Odets' use of realism in staging his agitprop plays.

Vernon, Grenville. "Clifford Odets." The Commonweal XXIX, No. 8 (16 December 1938): 215.

Contends that, regardless of their stated ethnic background, Odets' characters are "always Jewish in mode of thought, in emotion, and in expression."

Warshow, Robert. "Poet of the Jewish Middle Class." Commentary 1, No. 7 (May 1946): 17-22.

Explores aspects of Jewish culture and experience in Odets' works.

Weales, Gerald. "Clifford's Children: It's a Wise Playwright Who Knows His Own Father." Studies in American Drama, 1945-Present 2 (1987): 3-18.

Analyzes the settings, language, and ideology of Odets' plays.

Willett, Ralph. "Clifford Odets and Popular Culture." The South Atlantic Quarterly LXIX, No. 1 (Winter 1970): 68-78.

Argues that Odets' stage plays are as immersed in popular culture as his film scripts.

"WAITING FOR LEFTY" and "TILL THE DAY I DIE'

Atkinson, Brooks. Review of "Waiting for Lefty" and "Till the Day I Die." The New York Times (27 March 1935): 24.

Laudatory assessment that declares "Mr. Odets continues to be our most promising new dramatist."

Isaacs, Edith J. R. "Going Left with Fortune." Theatre Arts Monthly XIX, No. 5 (May 1935).

States "Waiting for Lefty" has "no clear outline or point of view except a general one of sympathy with the poor and the oppressed." Isaacs also contends that 'Till the Day I Die" "takes too much for granted in its minor roles and situations; acts too quickly … ; and is too brutal."

MacLeish, Archibald. "Theatre Against War and Fascism." New Theatre 11, No. 8 (August 1935): 3.

Favorable review of a performance of "Waiting for Lefty." MacLeish observes that "Clifford Odets and the Group and a crowded sweltering audience created among them something moving and actual and alive."

Young, Stark. "Lefty and Nazi." The New Republic LXXXII, No. 1062 (10 April 1935): 247.

Positive evaluation of "Waiting for Lefty" and "Till the Day I Die" that focuses on the controversial nature of their content.

AWAKE AND SING!

Atkinson, Brooks. Review of Awake and Sing! The New York Times (20 February 1935): 23.

Admiring assessment that nevertheless notes that Odets "does not quite finish what he has started in this elaborately constructed piece. Although he is very much awake, he does not sing with the ease and clarity of a man who has mastered his score."

Dozier, Richard J. "The Making of Awake and Sing! The Markham Review 6 (Summer 1977): 61-5.

Compares the play in its original form and the shape it finally took with its controversial "affirmative" ending.

Isaacs, Edith J. R. Review of Awake and Sing!" Theatre Arts Monthly XIX, No. 4 (April 1935): 254-56.

Argues that while the play "is full of promise," it is "thin and weak in important spots and not always clear in the action."

GOLDEN BOY

Atkinson, Brooks. Review of Golden Boy. The New York Times (5 November 1937): 18.

Asserts that Golden Boy "confirms the original convictions that Mr. Odets is an instinctive writer for the stage. He can compose dialogue with a fugue-like tossing around of themes; he can create vigorous characters; he can exploit scenes and enclose his narrative within the fullness of [a] wholly written play."

Choudhuri, A. D. "Golden Boy: Public Face of Illusion." In The Face of Illusion in American Drama, pp. 59-73. Atlantic Highlands, N.J.: Humanities Press, 1979.

Examines Odets' play from the perspective of the "manipulation of the concept of illusion and its conflict with reality."

Review of Golden Boy. Time XXX, No. 20 (15 November 1937): 25-6.

Admires the "swift mounting of scenes [and] the extravagance of dramatic energy" in Golden Boy.

Additional coverage of Odets' life and career is contained in the following sources published by Gale Research: Contemporary Authors, Vols. 85-88; Contemporary Literary Criticism, Vols. 2, 28; Dictionary of Literary Biography, Vols. 7, 26; Major Twentieth-Century Writers.