Wendy Wasserstein (1950–2006)
Author of Elements of Style
About the Author
Wendy Wasserstein was born in Brooklyn, New York on October 18, 1950. She received an undergraduate degree from Mount Holyoke College, an M.A. at City College of New York and a M.F.A. at Yale University's School of Drama. A one-act play not only served as her M.F.A. thesis but became the basis for show more her successful full-length work, Uncommon Women and Others (1977). Her other plays include Isn't It Romantic, The Sisters Rosensweig, and Old Money. The Heidi Chronicles (1989) received numerous awards including the Pulitzer Prize, the Tony, the New York Drama Critics Circle, Outer Critics Circle, Drama Desk, the Susan Smith Blackburn Prize for most outstanding play by a woman, and the Hull-Warriner Award for the best play dealing with a controversial subject. She also wrote the screenplay for the 1998 film The Object of My Affection, the children's book Pamela's First Musical, a spoof of self-help literature entitled Sloth, a novel entitled Elements of Style, and two collections of personal essays entitled Bachelor Girls and Shiksa Goddess. She died of lymphoma on January 30, 2006 at the age of 55. (Bowker Author Biography) show less
Image credit: 2005 Jill Krementz
Works by Wendy Wasserstein
The Seven Deadly Sins Set: Consisting of Greed, Gluttony, Envy, Lust, Sloth, Anger, and Pride (2006) 13 copies, 1 review
The Heidi Chronicles 3 copies
Tender Offer (in Antaeus) 2 copies
Workout 1 copy
Uncommon Women and Chorus 1 copy
The Age of Innocence 1 copy
The Surgeon 1 copy
Medea 1 copy
Associated Works
For the Love of Books: 115 Celebrated Writers on the Books They Love Most (1999) — Contributor — 478 copies, 4 reviews
The Actor's Book of Contemporary Stage Monologues: More Than 150 Monologues from More Than 70 Playwrights (1987) — Contributor — 192 copies
Love's Fire: Seven New Plays Inspired By Seven Shakespearean Sonnets (1998) — Contributor — 72 copies
Contemporary Plays by Women: Outstanding Winners and Runners-Up for the Susan Smith Blackburn Prize, 1978-1990 (1991) — Introduction — 49 copies
Creme de la Femme: The Best of Contemporary Women's Humor (1997) — Contributor — 40 copies, 2 reviews
Tagged
Common Knowledge
- Birthdate
- 1950-10-18
- Date of death
- 2006-01-30
- Gender
- female
- Education
- Mount Holyoke College
City College of New York
Yale University - Occupations
- playwright
professor
novelist
screenwriter - Organizations
- Cornell University
- Relationships
- Wasserstein, Bruce (brother)
- Short biography
- Wendy Wasserstein was the youngest of five siblings. The family moved from Brooklyn to Manhattan when she was 12. After graduating from Mount Holyoke College in 1971, she studied creative writing at City College of New York and her first play, Any Woman Can't, was produced by Playwrights Horizons in 1973. Shortly after, she began to study playwriting at the Yale School of Drama, where she receiving a master's degree in 1976. Her first major success was Uncommon Women and Others, produced by the Phoenix Theater in 1977 and then filmed and broadcast on PBS. The New York Times wrote in her obituary, "Ms. Wasserstein's plays struck a profound chord with women struggling to reconcile a desire for romance and companionship, drummed into baby boomers by the seductive fantasies of Hollywood movies, with the need for intellectual independence and achievement separate from the personal sphere." She won a Pulitzer Prize for her most celebrated play, The Heidi Chronicles, which opened in 1989. She also wrote a children's book, a novel, and did some scriptwriting in Hollywood. She wrote an essay for The New Yorker about her late-life pregnancy and her daughter Lucy Jane's premature birth.
- Nationality
- USA
- Birthplace
- Brooklyn, New York, USA
- Place of death
- Manhattan, New York, USA
- Associated Place (for map)
- New York, USA
Members
Reviews
The best of the three Wasserstein plays in the collection I've been reading: the exploration of family relationships gives you a better sense of how anyone can possibly be like the absurd people in these stories, and some sympathy for all the faking and hiding and yearning they do. And the love relationships get closer to a real investigation of class privilege than anything else Wasserstein's given us. "Only rich kids know what upper middle class is."
Practically the whole time I was reading this book, I thought it was enjoyable enough, but kind of pointless. Then I got to the end, and realized I had been reading The Great Gatsby all along, and it became absolutely fascinating! The more I think about this book, the more I like it. I love the way Gatsby was transformed into a woman, and the relationship between the Gatsby character and the rich heiress transformed into an idolatry/friendship. I love many things about this book that I can't show more talk about without talking about the end, but suffice to say the end totally makes the book. There really is great genius here that is easy to miss. I borrowed this from the library, but I think I will have to go out and buy a copy for my own library. show less
A woman is nominated for Attorney General. She is well qualified, but a minor misstep in her past - carelessly discarding a jury notice - threatens to derail the nomination. The press has a heyday, spiked by a "best friend" of the family who seems to exist only to tear other people down. The real disturbance in the country, however, comes from women who feel that she has not been suitably respectful of working mothers, and that she is an elitist who puts herself above making icebox cakes. It show more had a feeling that is all too real - women lining up to take pot shots at women who are more successful, seeking to build themselves up by tearing down any woman who dares to fly too high. Wasserstein has caught the mood of the country in the 90s, a mood that continues today, so well that is becomes difficult at times to continue reading. Not so much a work about the decline of feminism as it is a work about how everyone continues to bash feminists over the head with their success. I would say it will be limited by being topical, but I fear this topic will be topical for a very long time. After all, this play is nearly 20 years old now, and nothing has changed, unless it is to get worse. show less
This book is one of seven in a series on the seven deadly sins. Originating in a series of lectures, Oxford University Press has published them. This volume consists of Wendy Wasserstein's musings on sloth. Written as a parody of a self-help book, Wasserstein tells us that sloth is the new route to health and happiness. This is a funny book. Wasserstein is a comic talent, and she shows it here. Wasserstein mocks the impulsive culture of diet and self-improvement, but there is a serious side show more to her critique as well. In her last chapter, Uber-Sloths, Wasserstein dishes out some directed criticism at people who do a whole lot of nothing. The people who race from gym to group to meeting to engagement, enjoying none of it, and all for the sake of being so important as to be busy. This book is a quick read that made me laugh, and also made me nod in agreement. show less
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