Jesse Lynch Williams

In the opinion of his professional colleagues, Jesse Lynch Williams would have come to be a dramatist of great distinction if he had started writing for the theatre earlier in life. He began at an age when it is difficult not to be discouraged by the cruel setbacks and practical difficulties of the modern stage. Yet he had a real dash of the playwright’s genius. He could put men and women alive upon the stage; they vibrated to the human chord he struck, and lived their brief span before his audiences with a vitality that was not only brilliant but spontaneous and convincing.

His characters were charming people, so well conceived that one who had watched them on the stage occasionally found himself in retrospect confusing them with real people. His dialogue had both the salt of wit and the stinging pepper of satire. It had, too, what all good dialogue should have, a running speed with unexpected twists of playful nonsense and turns of sparkling raillery. No doubt, his point of view was challenging for his day. The very title of his first success, “Why Marry?” caused some shaking of the heads. Yet it sounded the gay note he loved; that of a joyous even if not entirely gentle irony.

Alexander Dana Noyes
1930 Century Association Yearbook