Notable Playwrights contains biographical sketches and critical studies
of 106 of the most important and best-known dramatists from antiquity
to the present day. Essays in this volume are taken from the recently
published Critical Survey of Drama, Revised Edition (2003), which
combined all the earlier Critical Survey of Drama editions and added 79
new essays on individual playwrights. In selecting articles for Notable
Playwrights, the editors have taken special care to include the
dramatists whose plays are most often studied in high school and
undergraduate literature and drama courses. Publication of this set completes Salem Press's
adaptation of all its Critical Survey sets in the Magill's Choice line
of books.
Of the 106 playwrights covered in Notable Playwrights, 72 are
English-language writers and 34 are foreign-language writers whose
works are widely studied in translation.
The collection of articles as a whole reflects the development of drama
from ancient Greek and Roman playwrights up to European, American,
Asian, and African writers of the present century. Among the many
movements and dramatic genres represented by playwrights in this set
are postmodernism, comedy, absurdism, modernism, and expressionism.
Each essay provides essential information at its beginning: the
playwright's birth and death dates, followed by these sections:
Principal drama, Other literary forms, Achievements, Biography, Analysis, Other major works, and Bibliography.
Five useful reference features are included at the end of volume 3: a
Glossary of drama terms, a Time Line of the playwrights by their
birthdates, a Category List of the playwrights by the movements they
represent, a Geographical List of the playwrights by countries and
regions, and a general Subject Index.