21 Facts About Maxwell Anderson

James Maxwell Anderson was an American playwright, author, poet, journalist, and lyricist.

Maxwell Anderson was married three times and had a tumultuous personal life, ultimately passing away in 1959 after suffering a stroke.

Maxwell Anderson was born on December 15,1888, in Atlantic, Pennsylvania, the second of eight children to William Lincoln "Link" Maxwell Anderson, a Baptist minister, and Charlotte Perrimela Stephenson, both of Scotch-Irish descent.

Maxwell Anderson used his time sick in bed to read voraciously, and both his parents and Aunt Emma were storytellers, which contributed to Anderson's love of literature.

Maxwell Anderson obtained a BA in English Literature from the University of North Dakota in 1911.

Maxwell Anderson became the principal of a high school in Minnewaukan, North Dakota, teaching English there, but was fired in 1913 for making pacifist statements to his students.

Maxwell Anderson became a high school English teacher in San Francisco.

Maxwell Anderson was fired after a year for public statements supporting Arthur Camp, a jailed student seeking status as a conscientious objector.

Maxwell Anderson moved to Palo Alto to write for the San Francisco Evening Bulletin, but was fired for writing an editorial stating that it would be impossible for Germany to pay off its war debt.

Maxwell Anderson then moved to San Francisco to write for the San Francisco Chronicle, but was fired after contracting the Spanish flu and missing work.

Alvin S Johnson hired Anderson to move to New York City and write about politics for The New Republic in 1918, but he was fired after an argument with Editor-in-Chief Herbert David Croly.

Maxwell Anderson found work at The New York Globe, and the New York World.

Maxwell Anderson's plays are in widely varying styles, and Anderson was one of the few modern playwrights to make extensive use of blank verse.

Maxwell Anderson enjoyed great commercial success with a series of plays set during the reign of the Tudor family, who ruled England, Wales and Ireland from 1485 until 1603.

Maxwell Anderson wrote book and lyrics for two successful musicals with composer Kurt Weill.

Maxwell Anderson was hired by Alfred Hitchcock to write the screenplay for Hitchcock's The Wrong Man.

Hitchcock contracted with Maxwell Anderson to write the screenplay for what became Vertigo, but Hitchcock rejected his screenplay Darkling, I Listen.

Maxwell Anderson married Margaret Haskett, a classmate, on August 1,1911 in Bottineau, North Dakota.

Maxwell Anderson was a significant help with clerical duties, but had expensive tastes and spent Anderson's money freely.

Maxwell Anderson married once more, to ABC's TV Celanese Theater Production Assistant, Gilda Hazard, on June 6,1954.

Maxwell Anderson died in Stamford, Connecticut, on February 28,1959, two days after suffering a stroke, aged 70.