Langdon Mitchell
Langdon Elwyn Mitchell was an American playwright best known for his works "The Picture Book of Becky Sharp," an adaptation of Thackeray's *Vanity Fair*, and "The New York Idea," a satirical examination of marriage and divorce. Born into a prominent family, with his father being a well-known physician and novelist, Mitchell received a distinguished education, studying at St. Paul's School, Harvard, and Columbia University before passing the New York bar exam. Despite his legal background, he developed a passion for theater, publishing his first play in 1885 under the pseudonym John Philip Varley.
Mitchell's theatrical journey included significant achievements in England, where he gained recognition for his one-act plays and married British actress Marion Lea. His notable works include "The Picture Book of Becky Sharp," which enjoyed a successful Broadway run, and "The New York Idea," which became his most celebrated piece and remains included in numerous drama anthologies. Later in his career, he was appointed to a prestigious playwriting chair at the University of Pennsylvania. Although he continued to write, none of his later works achieved the same acclaim as his earlier plays.
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Langdon Mitchell
Fiction and Nonfiction Writer, Poet and Playwright
- Born: February 17, 1862
- Birthplace: Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
- Died: October 21, 1935
- Place of death: Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Biography
Langdon Elwyn Mitchell is remembered largely for two of his plays, The Picture Book of Becky Sharp, an adaptation of William Thackeray’s Vanity Fair, and The New York Idea. The son of Silas Weir Mitchell, a prominent Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, physician who became a popular novelist, Langdon had an excellent education, first at St. Paul’s School in New Hampshire and then at Harvard and Columbia Universities, where he studied law. He passed the New York bar examination in 1886 after spending three years abroad, studying in Dresden and Paris.
In 1885, having become intrigued by theater, he published his first play, Sylvian, an apprentice piece that was never produced. The play, however, demonstrated Mitchell’s careful craftsmanship. He experimented in this play with the ploy of using a play-within-a-play to enhance the most important scene. Overall the romantic tragedy he produced was derivative and flawed. Mitchell, not wanting to trade on his father’s name, used the pseudonym John Philip Varley.
Soon after passing the bar examination, Mitchell set sail for England, where in 1892, four of his one-act plays were performed. While he was there, he married Marion Lea, a British actress, who performed in three of his plays. In the Season provided strong evidence of Mitchell’s excellence as a playwright. His characterizations are sharp, his repartee sparkling. He demonstrated a unique ability to pace his plays effectively.
Mitchell and his bride returned to the United States and, in 1894, his collection, Poems, was published, followed in 1897 by two of his novellas, published as Love in the Backwoods. In 1898, a fortuitous circumstance occurred. The actress Minnie Maddern Fiske and her husband, a stage manager, had seen Mitchell’s plays in London and were impressed. They now sought a playwright to create an acting vehicle for Fiske based on Thackeray’s Vanity Fair, so they proposed that Mitchell write the play they wanted. He agreed and produced The Picture Book of Becky Sharp, which ran for 116 performances on Broadway. Realizing that Thackeray’s novel had little drama in it, Mitchell chose the dramatic scene in which Becky is caught by Rawdon in a compromising situation with Lord Steyne, and made it the play’s dramatic center.
A decade later, Fiske asked Mitchell to write a comedy for her 1906-1907 season. The result was what turned out to be Mitchell’s most successful play, The New York Idea, a brilliant drama that satirizes the frivolity of marriage and divorce in the United States. The play was performed regularly for almost a century and is included in over a dozen drama anthologies. Mitchell continued to write, but his work never again rose to the level of The New York Idea.
Arthur Hobson Quinn, the noted historian of drama at the University of Pennsylvania, appreciated Mitchell’s talents and nominated him to occupy the first chair in playwriting at the University of Pennsylvania. Mitchell held that prestigious appointment from 1928 to 1930.