Bentley on Brecht

Since their first meeting in Santa Monica, California in 1942, Eric Bentley has been Bertolt Brecht’s other, offstage voice.  Just as Brecht reshaped modern theater, Bentley’s writings on Brecht helped shape his reputation in the United States and the rest of the world.  Bentley on Brecht represents a lifetime of critical and personal thoughts on both Brecht as friend and Brecht as influential literary figure. Brought together in this volume are Brecht-Bentley correspondence, Bentley’s personal recollections of his years with Brecht, including Charles Laughton’s production of Galileo, Brecht’s testimony before the House Un-American Activities Committee, and Bentley’s analysis of Brecht’s plays. 

Eric Bentley was born in England in 1916 and became an American citizen in 1948. He has earned a reputation as a scholar, teacher, professional theatre critic, performer, and a playwright.  Recently, Bentley was honored with the 2006 Village Voice OBIE Awards Lifetime Achievement Award and the 2006 International Association of Theatre Critics Thalia Prize. He is the author of many major texts on drama including The Playwright as Thinker (Harvest, 1987), The Life of the Drama (Applause, 2000), and Thinking about the Playwright (Northwestern, 1987). He is also the author of several collections of plays including Rallying Cries (1987), The Kleist Variations (2005), and Monstrous Martyrdoms (2007), as well as the translator of Pirandello’s Plays (1998) and the author of  The Pirandello Commentaries (1986), all available from Northwestern University Press.