Lionel Abel
Lionel Abelson, known as Lionel Abel, was a prominent American playwright, critic, and translator, born on November 28, 1910, in Brooklyn, New York. Raised in a literary family, he left home at 15 due to conflicts with his father, a rabbi. Abel's early education included time at St. John's University and the University of North Carolina, where he faced expulsion for his controversial magazine. He became deeply involved in the vibrant intellectual scene of Greenwich Village, where he engaged with notable artists and thinkers during the Great Depression.
Abel's significant works include the existentialist play "Absalom," which won an Obie Award, and his critical essays collected in "Metatheatre: A New View of Dramatic Form," where he articulated a unique perspective on drama. His connections in post-World War II Paris included existentialist figures like Jean-Paul Sartre and Albert Camus. Throughout his career, Abel received numerous accolades, including a Guggenheim fellowship and a Rockefeller Foundation grant. He served as a professor at the State University of New York at Buffalo and continued to influence literature and drama until his death on April 19, 2001. Abel's legacy is marked by his contributions to theater, literature, and the rich cultural exchanges of his time.
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Lionel Abel
Playwright
- Born: November 28, 1910
- Birthplace: Brooklyn, New York
- Died: April 19, 2001
- Place of death: New York, New York
Biography
Lionel Abelson was born in Brooklyn, New York, on November 28, 1910. He was one of four children born to Alter Abelson, a rabbi and poet, and Anna Schwartz Abelson, a writer of short fiction. He grew up in Niagara Falls, New York, finishing high school before his fourteenth birthday. However, friction with his father resulted in Lionel’s leaving home at fifteen. At that time he also shortened his name. Abel attended St. John’s University in New York from 1926 to 1928, and then transferred to the University of North Carolina. However, he was expelled for publishing a magazine the administration found unacceptable.
In 1929, Abel arrived in Greenwich Village, New York, where he joined a circle of brilliant but impoverished left-wing intellectuals. During the Depression, Abel lived meagerly on what he was paid for his reviews and French translations, supplemented by a government stipend. However, in the bars and cafés of Greenwich Village, Abel spent his days and nights in conversations with the artists, writers, critics, and editors who were making New York one of the great cultural and intellectual centers of the world. In 1939, Abel married Sherry Goldman; they were later divorced. Their only child, a daughter, died in 1964. In 1970, Abel married Gloria Becker.
After the Second World War, Abel went to live in Paris. There he became a member of the circle that included the existentialist philosopher Jean-Paul Sartre, who designated Abel his authorized translator, and the writers Albert Camus and Simone de Beauvoir. Back in New York City, Abel participated in the tempestuous intellectual life of the 1950’s. During the 1950’s and the 1960’s, he saw four of his plays produced Off- Broadway. The most successful of them was Absalom, an existentialist drama, first staged at the Artist’s Theatre in 1956. Abel’s most important critical work appeared in 1963. Metatheatre: A New View of Dramatic Form was a collection of essays that had previously appeared in magazines. In them, Abel presented his theory of drama, which was based on the existential idea that both onstage and off, individuals must invent themselves and impose their own order.
During the 1970’s, Abel was a professor of English at the State University of New York at Buffalo. After leaving in the early 1980’s, he published his autobiography, The Intellectual Follies, and a book-length collection of essays about various writers entitled Important Nonsense. Abel died in New York City on April 19, 2001.
Abel was the recipient of a Guggenheim fellowship in 1958, a Longview award in 1960, an award from the National Insitute of Arts and Letters in 1964, and a Rockefeller Foundation grant in 1966. His play Absalom won an Obie as the best play of the 1956 Off-Broadway season. Abel’s major achievements include his plays, his translations, and his essays on literature, drama, and art. However, his most important contribution to his era may well be the ideas he expressed in those conversations in the cafés and bars of Greenwich Village and Paris during an era when cultural history was being made.