Robert E. Sherwood

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Lore & Background

Born in 1896 in New Rochelle, New York, Sherwood was a son of Arthur Murray Sherwood, a rich stockbroker who co-founded *The Harvard Lampoon*, and Rosina Emmet, a highly accomplished illustrator and portrait painter. He was a great-great-grandson of former New York State Attorney General Thomas Addis Emmet and a great-grandnephew of Irish nationalist Robert Emmet. Educated at Fay School, Milton Academy, and Harvard from 1914 to 1917, he left Harvard to enlist in the 42nd Battalion of the Canadian Expeditionary Force after the U.S. Army rejected him as too tall. During World War I service in France he was gassed and wounded twice. After returning, he worked as a movie critic for *Life* and *Vanity Fair*. Sherwood was an original member of the Algonquin Round Table, close friends with Dorothy Parker and Robert Benchley. In 1920, he became editor of *Life*. His first Broadway play, *The Road to Rome* (1927), a comedy about Hannibal's botched invasion of Rome, introduced his theme of the futility of war. *Idiot's Delight* (1936) won his first Pulitzer Prize. From 1937 to 1939, he served as president of the Dramatists Guild of America. During World War II, he set aside his anti-war stance to support the fight against the Third Reich. *There Shall Be No Night* (1940), about the Soviet Union's invasion of Finland, was produced by the Playwright's Company he co-founded. Sherwood served as a speechwriter for President Franklin D. Roosevelt and is credited with originating the phrase that evolved into 'Arsenal of Democracy.' After serving as director of the Overseas Branch of the Office of War Information from 1943 until the war's conclusion, he wrote the screenplay for *The Best Years of Our Lives* (1946), earning an Academy Award for Best Screenplay. He recounted his Roosevelt experience in *Roosevelt and Hopkins: An Intimate History*, which won the 1949 Pulitzer Prize for Biography. Sherwood stood 6 feet 8 inches tall. Dorothy Parker once commented that when she, Sherwood, and Robert Benchley walked together, they resembled 'a walking pipe organ.' He died of a heart attack in New York City in 1955.

Reader's Guide

Robert E. Sherwood's career spanned playwriting, screenwriting, criticism, and biography, with his work often exploring the futility of war and democratic values. His plays earned three Pulitzer Prizes for Drama: *Idiot's Delight* (1936), *Abe Lincoln in Illinois* (1938), and *There Shall Be No Night* (1940). He collaborated with Alfred Hitchcock and Joan Harrison on the screenplay for *Rebecca* (1940). His 1946 film *The Best Years of Our Lives*, directed by William Wyler, earned him an Academy Award for Best Adapted Screenplay. As a speechwriter for President Franklin D. Roosevelt, he originated the phrase that became 'Arsenal of Democracy,' quoted in *The New York Times* on May 12, 1940: 'This country is already, in effect, an arsenal for the democratic Allies.' His biography *Roosevelt and Hopkins: An Intimate History* (1948) won the 1949 Pulitzer Prize for Biography and a 1949 Bancroft Prize. Sherwood publicly ridiculed isolationist Charles Lindbergh as 'a Nazi with a Nazi's Olympian contempt for all democratic processes.' He was portrayed by actor Nick Cassavetes in the 1994 film *Mrs. Parker and the Vicious Circle*. His final work, *Small War on Murray Hill*, debuted on Broadway posthumously on January 3, 1957.

Did You Know?

• Sherwood was rejected by the U.S. Army for being too tall, so he enlisted in the Canadian Expeditionary Force instead.
• He stood 6 feet 8 inches tall; Dorothy Parker said walking with him and Robert Benchley looked like 'a walking pipe organ.'
• Sherwood is credited with originating the phrase that evolved into FDR's 'Arsenal of Democracy' speech.
• He won the Pulitzer Prize for Drama three times: in 1936, 1939, and 1941.
• His biography *Roosevelt and Hopkins: An Intimate History* won both the 1949 Pulitzer Prize for Biography and the Bancroft Prize.