Paul Osborn

Paul Osborn was born in Evansville, Indiana in 1901. Although he received a degree in English, he toyed with becoming an electrical engineer while his friends worked in hardware stores or banks. He went to study playwrighting at Yale in 1927, not to indulge an interest in theatre, but to escape from a life that “bored” him. He moved to New York and was working menial jobs when Antoinette Perry, set to do his first play, offered him a small allowance so he could just write. The result, The Vinegar Tree, became a hit on Broadway in 1930. His next two plays, including Morning’s at Seven, were met with indifference. Osborn then fell into work writing adaptations, including the acclaimed On Borrowed Time (1938) and Point of No Return (1951) for Broadway, and Academy Award nominated East of Eden (1955) and Sayonara (1957) for Hollywood. After his eyesight began to fail and he slipped into anonymity, Morning’s at Seven was revived on Broadway in 1980 and received critical accolades and a Tony Award for Best Revival, sealing Osborn’s place in the American Theatre canon.