Bentley on Brecht

Winner, 2006 International Association of Theatre Critics Thalia Prize
Recipient, 2007 The Robert Chesley Foundation Lifetime Achievement Award in Playwriting
Winner, 2006 Village Voice OBIE Awards Lifetime Achievement Award
Since their first meeting in Santa Monica, California in 1942, Eric Bentley has been Bertolt Brecht’s other, offstage voice.  Just as Brecht reshaped modern theater, Bentley’s writings on Brecht helped shape his reputation in the United States and the rest of the world.  Bentley on Brecht represents a lifetime of critical and personal thoughts on both Brecht as friend and Brecht as influential literary figure. Brought together in this volume are Brecht-Bentley correspondence, Bentley’s personal recollections of his years with Brecht, including Charles Laughton’s production of Galileo, Brecht’s testimony before the House Un-American Activities Committee, and Bentley’s analysis of Brecht’s plays. 

Winner of 2006 International Association of Theatre Critics Thalia Prize
Recipient of 2007 The Robert Chesley Foundation Lifetime Achievement Award in Playwriting
Winner of 2006 Village Voice OBIE Awards Lifetime Achievement Award

“An immensely valuable account of the interaction of two great personalities at a climactic period of history.”—Martin Esslin

Eric Bentley was born in England in 1916 and became an American citizen in 1948. He has earned a reputation as a scholar, teacher, professional theatre critic, performer, and a playwright.  Recently, Bentley was honored with the 2006 Village Voice OBIE Awards Lifetime Achievement Award and the 2006 International Association of Theatre Critics Thalia Prize. He is the author of many major texts on drama including The Playwright as Thinker (Harvest, 1987), The Life of the Drama (Applause, 2000), and Thinking about the Playwright (Northwestern, 1987). He is also the author of several collections of plays including Rallying Cries (1987), The Kleist Variations (2005), and Monstrous Martyrdoms (2007), as well as the translator of Pirandello’s Plays (1998) and the author of  The Pirandello Commentaries (1986), all available from Northwestern University Press.  

Acknowledgments and Dedications
1998    Preface
The Brecht Commentaries1998    Brecht's Reputation
1943    The Trial of Lucullus
1944    The Private Life of the Master Race
1946    From Strindberg to Brecht
1950    The Stageecraft of Bertolt Brecht
1960    Seven Plays
                   In the Swamp
                   A Man's Man
                   Saint Joan of the Stockyards
                   Galileo
                   The Good Woman of Setzuan
                   Mother Courage
                   The Caucasian Chalk Circle
1962    A Man's a Man
            What is a Zonk

1963     Baal
1964     A New Aestheticism
1965     Why Has Broadway Rejected Bertolt Brecht
             Edward II
             Mother Courage
1966     The Caucasian Chalk Circle (I)
             The Caucasian Chalk Circle (II)
             Galileo (I)
1967     Galileo (II)
1969      Ibsen, Shaw, Brecht
              Brecht, Bertolt (1898-1956)
1971      The Days of the Commune
1976      The Threepenny Opera
1977      The Measures Taken
1979      The Rise of the Mahagonny
1980      Brecht-Bentley Correspondence
1986      The Influence of Brecht
1989      Dramatic Poetry Was Reborn in Germany
The Brecht Memoir        Bentley-Brecht Correspondence
        Notes
        Postscript
Appendix 1: Answers to a Questionnaire
Appendix 2: A Bibliography of Other Works on brecht by Bentley
Appendix 3: Another Bibliography: Bentley Translations of Brecht
Index to Brecht Works and Characters
Index
Gallery follows page 136.