Theatre & dance / Literature
Bronson Howard
1842–1908 · playwright
Detroit-born son of an 1849 Detroit mayor, often called the first American to make a living as a professional playwright, author of Shenandoah and Saratoga.
- Born
Detroit, Michigan- Died
Avon-by-the-Sea, New Jersey
aged 65- Birth name
- Bronson Crocker Howard
- Detroit years
- 1842–1860s
- Field
- Theatre & dance, Literature
01 / The Detroit story
The Detroit story
Howard was born in Detroit in 1842, when it was still a small river town; his father, Charles Howard, a merchant, served as the city's mayor in 1849. He grew up in Detroit and began writing for the stage early: his first dramatic piece, Fantine, drawn from Victor Hugo's Les Misérables, was performed in Detroit in 1864. He then moved to New York, working as a journalist until Augustin Daly produced his comedy Saratoga in 1870. Plays such as The Banker's Daughter, Young Mrs. Winthrop, The Henrietta and the Civil War drama Shenandoah (1889), one of the great hits of the 19th-century stage, made him the leading American dramatist of his day and one of the first to live from playwriting alone. He founded the American Dramatists Club and, after his death in New Jersey, was buried in Detroit's Elmwood Cemetery.
Highlights
- Shenandoah (1889), a major Civil War stage hit
- Saratoga (1870), his first success, produced by Augustin Daly
- First play, Fantine, staged in Detroit in 1864
- Founder and first president of the American Dramatists Club
- Son of Charles Howard, mayor of Detroit in 1849
02 / Their Detroit places
Their Detroit places 1
Where they lived, worked, performed and liked to hang out. Closed and demolished places stay here too, because they are part of the city's history.
Buried here · 1908
Elmwood Cemetery
Detroit's historic cemetery, his burial place according to Wikidata.