Martin Flavin
Martin Archer Flavin was an American playwright and novelist, born in 1883 in San Francisco, California. Initially pursuing a career in the wallpaper industry, he climbed the ranks to become a prominent figure within the business before turning his attention to writing plays in 1918. His most notable work, *Children of the Moon*, debuted on Broadway in 1923 and was well-received, leading him to fully commit to playwriting. Flavin's body of work includes approximately twenty plays and several novels, often exploring themes of individualism, family dynamics, and the impacts of industrial society.
His writing frequently juxtaposes the moral integrity of characters against the corrupting influence of wealth and power, reflecting societal challenges such as the Great Depression. Flavin achieved critical acclaim with his Pulitzer Prize-winning novel *Journey in the Dark*, which chronicles a man’s rise in the business world while grappling with his lost humanity. The author also contributed to film, with adaptations of some of his plays and original screenplays. Flavin lived most of his life in California and passed away in 1967. His work continues to resonate, particularly for its nuanced examination of personal values amid societal pressures.
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Martin Flavin
Writer
- Born: November 2, 1883
- Birthplace: San Francisco, California
- Died: December 27, 1967
- Place of death: Pebble Beach, California
Biography
Martin Archer Flavin was born in San Francisco, California, in 1883. After he graduated from the University of Chicago, he dabbled a while writing short stories but abandoned writing in favor of a promising career in the wallpaper business. From 1906 to 1926, he rose from office boy in a wallpaper company to the vice presidency of one wallpaper company and the presidency of another.
During those years, he developed a fascination for the theater and began writing plays in 1918. One of his plays, Children of the Moon, was produced on Broadway in 1923. The play enjoyed a long run and good reviews and later was produced in London and Dublin, Ireland. Bolstered by this success, he quit the wallpaper business and turned all his energies to playwriting. After 1937, when almost twenty of his plays had been produced, he abandoned the stage to write novels.
Nevertheless, he never lost interest in the world of business and finance, and this world is featured in many of his plays and novels. In his plots, family and close personal relationships are set against the larger, less caring world of industry; small-town life confronts the demands of politics and urban financial institutions; and lonely and powerless people battle the sweeping forces of the Great Depression. The plots often call upon the protagonist to recognize the solid values of individualism, self-reliance, and commitment to others. Flavin’s characters are fundamentally good, but they are diverted and distracted by the temptations of power and wealth.
Flavin’s play, Amaco, traces the growth of industry by way of a huge factory seen at different points in its evolution. Another play, The Criminal Code, deals with an unjust conviction caused by corruption. Broken Dishes portrays a wife who is always accusing her husband of falling short, maintaining she could have married a wealthy and promising young man; this man eventually shows up, and he is now middle-aged, penniless, and a fugitive from justice. Society is seen as a corrupting force that taps the basest human instincts of greed and self-interest.
Flavin’s novels examine similar themes. Horatio Littlejohn, the protagonist of the novel Mr. Littlejohn, takes to the road in disguise in order to escape the stress of running his toothpaste manufacturing business and to discover the essence of life and humanity. He finds the answers in the little things one does and the people one meets, and he returns a warm and humane new man. Flavin’s best-known work is his novel Journey in the Dark, which won the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction in 1944. The journey takes the central character, Sam Braden, from his humble beginning in a small town in Iowa to his arrival at the peak of the business world as the millionaire president of a wallpaper company, very much like Flavin himself. Braden’s journey, however, is in the dark for he never recognizes his own humanity nor the redeeming power of relationships with friends and family. Another novel, Cameron Hill: The History of a Crime, traces the fall from power of a scion of a distinguished and wealthy family. Having lost his wealth, his values are too thin to sustain him and he eventually sinks to murdering a prostitute.
Flavin also wrote the screenplays for the films The Big House and Passion Flower. Several of Flavin’s own works were adapted for the screen, including The Criminal Code, initially released as a film in 1931 and remade in 1938 as Penitentiary and in 1950 as Convicted. Broken Dishes also was adapted for film and television.
Flavin lived most of his life in California. He died in Pebble Beach, California, in 1967 from injuries sustained in a fall.