Max Shulman
Max Shulman was an influential American writer born in 1919 in St. Paul, Minnesota. He began his career in humor while studying at the University of Minnesota, where he wrote a column for the school’s humor publication. His first major success came with the novel "Barefoot Boy with Cheek," published in 1943, which became a best-seller. Shulman gained further fame with his short-story collection "The Many Loves of Dobie Gillis," which inspired a film and a popular television series. Throughout his career, he wrote novels, plays, and screenplays, including works like "The Tender Trap" and "How Now, Dow Jones," the latter earning him a Tony Award nomination. Beyond his literary achievements, Shulman also explored the nature of humor in his writing, challenging its classification as mere entertainment in an article for the Yale Review. He navigated personal loss, marrying twice and ultimately passing away from bone cancer in 1988 in Los Angeles, California. Shulman's contributions to American literature and comedy continue to be recognized and appreciated.
On this Page
Subject Terms
Max Shulman
Author
- Born: March 14, 1919
- Birthplace: St. Paul, Minnesota
- Died: August 28, 1988
- Place of death: Los Angeles, California
Biography
Max Shulman was born in 1919 in St. Paul, Minnesota, the son of house painter Abraham Shulman and Bessie Karchmer Schulman. Shulman began his writing career while he was a student at the University of Minnesota, penning a humor column for the school humor newspaper, Ski-U-Mah, between 1940 and 1941. An editor from Doubleday read the columns and approached Shulman about writing a novel. That book, Barefoot Boy with Cheek, became a best-seller when it was published in 1943, just one year after Shulman earned his bachelor’s degree.
Shulman married Carol Rees in December, 1941, and from 1942 to 1945 he served in the U.S. Army Air Force, during which time he wrote two novels, The Feather Merchants (1944) and The Zebra Derby (1946). But it was his short-story collection, The Many Loves of Dobie Gillis (1951), that propelled Shulman into fame. The book spawned the film The Affairs of Dobie Gillis (1953) as well as a prime time situation comedy, The Many Loves of Dobie Gillis, that aired from 1959 to 1963.
In 1961, Shulman wrote, “I know now why I turned early to humor as my branch of writing. The reason is simply that life was bitter and I was not.” In October,1961, Shulman wrote an article for the Yale Review entitled “American Humor: Its Cause and Cure.” This article was his way of anticipating the reviews of his critics. He used the article to undermine the classification of humor as a form of literature, effectively stripping humor of it significance and stature. Thus, his reviewers lost the basis for their criticisms.
In 1963, Shulman’s wife, Carol, died and Shulman married his second wife, Mary Gordon, in 1964. Shulman proved himself in the world of theater in 1954 with The Tender Trap, a play he wrote with Robert Paul Smith. The play was produced on Broadway and then adapted into a film the following year. Shulman earned a Tony Award Nomination in 1968 for his play How Now, Dow Jones. He also collaborated with several writers on the screenplay for the 1978 comedy film House Calls. Shulman’s other writings include the novels Rally Round the Flag, Boys! (1957) and Sleep Till Noon (1950) and the short-story collection I Was a Teenage Dwarf (1959). Shulman died of bone cancer on August 28, 1988, in Los Angeles, California.