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Alexander Humphreys Woollcott (January 19, 1887 – January 23, 1943) was an American critic and commentator for ''The New Yorker'' magazine and a member of the Algonquin Round Table. He was the inspiration for Sheridan Whiteside, the main character in the play ''The Man Who Came to Dinner'' (1939) by George S. Kaufman and Moss Hart,〔Oscar Levant, ''The Unimportance of Being Oscar'', Pocket Books 1969 (reprint of G.P. Putnam 1968), p. 81. ISBN 0-671-77104-3.〕 and for the far less likable character Waldo Lydecker in the film ''Laura'' (1944). He was convinced he was the inspiration for Rex Stout's brilliant detective Nero Wolfe, but Stout, although he was friendly to Woollcott, said there was nothing to that idea.〔McAleer, John, ''Rex Stout: A Biography''. Boston: Little, Brown and Company, 1977, ISBN 0-316-55340-9 page 247. "In September 1935 Woollcott phoned Rex and invited him to dinner at the Lambs' Club. Until then the two men had never met. Woollcott wanted to meet Rex because he had just read ''The League of Frightened Men'' and was convinced the character of Wolfe was modeled on himself." Woollcott refused to accept Stout's denials, and as their friendship grew he settled into the legend.〕 ==Biography== Alexander Woollcott was born in an 85-room house, a vast ramshackle building in Colts Neck Township, New Jersey. Known as "the North American Phalanx", it had once been a commune where many social experiments were carried on in the mid-19th century, some more successful than others. When the Phalanx fell apart after a fire in 1854, it was taken over by the Bucklin family, Woollcott's maternal grandparents. Woollcott spent large portions of his childhood there among his extended family. His father was a ne'er-do-well Cockney who drifted through various jobs, sometimes spending long periods away from his wife and children. Poverty was always close at hand. The Bucklins and Woollcotts were avid readers, giving young Aleck (his nickname) a lifelong love of literature, especially the works of Charles Dickens. He also resided with his family in Kansas City, Missouri, where he attended Central High School, where a teacher, Sophie Rosenberger, reportedly "inspired him to literary effort" and with whom he "kept in touch all her life."〔Lee Shippey, ''Luckiest Man Alive,'' Los Angeles, Westernlore Press (1959), page 22〕 With the help of a family friend, he made his way through college, graduating from Hamilton College, New York, in 1909. Despite a rather poor reputation (his nickname was "Putrid"), he founded a drama group there, edited the student literary magazine and was accepted by a fraternity. In his early twenties he contracted the mumps, which apparently left him mostly, if not completely, impotent. He never married or had children, although he had some notable female friends, including Dorothy Parker and Neysa McMein, to whom he reportedly proposed the day after she had just wed her new husband, Jack Baragwanath. Wollcott once told McMein that “I’m thinking of writing the story of our life together. The title is already settled.” McMein: “What is it?” Woollcott: “Under Separate Cover.”) Woollcott joined the staff of ''The New York Times'' as a cub reporter in 1909. In 1914 he was named drama critic and held the post until 1922, with a break for service during World War I. In April 1917, the day after war was declared, Woollcott volunteered as a private in the medical corps. Posted overseas, Woollcott was a sergeant when the intelligence section of the American Expeditionary Forces selected him and a half-dozen other newspaper men to create the ''Stars and Stripes'', an official newspaper to bolster troop morale. As chief reporter for the ''Stars and Stripes'', Woollcott was a member of the amazingly talented team that formed its editorial board. These included Harold Ross, founding genius of ''The New Yorker'' Magazine, Cyrus Baldridge, multifaceted illustrator, author and writer, and the future columnist and radio personality, Franklin P. Adams. Going beyond simple propaganda, Woollcott and his colleagues reported the horrors of the Great War from the point of view of the common soldier. After the war he returned to ''The New York Times'', then transferred to the ''New York Herald'' in 1922 and to ''The World'' in 1923. He remained there until 1928.〔"Woollcott Dies After Heart Attack In Radio Studio During Broadcast". ''The New York Times'', January 24, 1943〕 One of New York's most prolific drama critics, he was banned for a time from reviewing certain Broadway theater shows due to his florid and often vitriolic prose.〔Marx, Harpo, and Barber, Rowland. ''Harpo Speaks!'' New York: Limelight Editions. (2004)〕 He sued the Shubert theater organization for violation of the New York Civil Rights Act, but lost in the state's highest court in 1916 on the grounds that only discrimination on the basis of race, creed or color was unlawful.〔Bruce B. Klee. (1961) Woollcott vs. Shubert: Dramatic Criticism on Trial. (Educational Theatre Journal, 13, 4'' ), pp. 264–268.〕 From 1929 to 1934, he wrote a column called "Shouts and Murmurs" for ''The New Yorker''. His book, ''While Rome Burns'', published by Grosset & Dunlap in 1934, was named twenty years later by critic Vincent Starrett as one of the 52 "Best Loved Books of the Twentieth Century". 〔Wallace, David. ("The Round Table" ). ''Capital of the World: A Portrait of New York City in the Roaring Twenties''. Guilford, CT: Lyons Press. p. 168. ISBN 978-0-7627-7010-6.〕 Woollcott's review of the Marx Brothers' Broadway debut, ''I'll Say She Is'', helped the group's career from mere success to superstardom and started a life-long friendship with Harpo Marx.〔Charney, Maurice. ("How Marx Brothers Developed Their Comic Characters" ). ''The Comic World of the Marx Brothers' Movies: "Anything Further Father?"''. Cranbury, NJ; Associated University Presses. p. 46. ISBN 978-0-8386-4124-8.〕 Harpo's two adopted sons, Alexander Marx and William (Bill) Woollcott Marx, were named after Woollcott and his brother, Billy Woollcott.〔Hopper, Hedda. ("Hedda Hopper's Hollywood" ). ''The Harrisburg Telegraph''. August 10, 1944. "Harpo' s adopted his second son and named him Alexander Marx. His first boy is William Woollcott. Hes done all right for his old friend, the late Alexander Woollcott."〕 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Alexander Woollcott」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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