Since 1903, members of Arts and Letters have delivered commemorative tributes to fellow members who have passed away. These remarks celebrate and reflect on the lives and work of the members being honored and acknowledge their contribution to the arts. A selection of tributes is now available in the digital archive below. As we prepared this archive, we were reminded that these tributes reflect their times, and, in some instances, include terminology and social and moral judgments we do not endorse.
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I knew Elmer Rice many years before we met. I was a twenty-four year old newspaper reporter in Pittsburgh when I read that Elmer, twenty-two years old, had written the outstanding hit of the New York theatrical season of 1914. He was a law clerk and his achievement must have urged a raft of other young playwrights to more intense efforts at their typewriters.
Elmer's play was called On Trial. It was the first of the great courtroom dramas and was told with fresh technique. It employed the flashback method of narration which was beginning to be used in motion pictures. Later, Elmer brought many other innovations to the theatre, his early impressionistic play, The Adding Machine, prompted a lot of other kaleidoscopic writing.
To me, Elmer became more than a distinguished dramatist when he helped found the present Dramatist Guild. He was one of several already established playwrights who worked with unselfish courage to protect authors and playwrights yet unborn from signing outrageously unfair contracts with unscrupulous managers. Elmer's whole life is a record of his concern for others. Elmer Rice and integrity were synonymous. He was also a modest man—so modest that, unlike Cyrano, he was unaware that he had never tarnished his white plume.