Important playwright of the early 20th century. He suffered from arthritis from the late 1910s; he eventually went blind and spent his last 20 years as an invalid. He was sought out for writing advice by many luminaries of the '30s and '40s such as Thornton Wilder, Alexander Woollcott, Anne Morrow Lindbergh and Ruth Gordon. His life is recounted in "The Man Who Lived Twice" by Eric Barnes.