Zoe Akins [Oct. 30,1886--Oct. 29, 1953]
American poet, playwright, and screenwriter; first successful play was Declassee
(1919) following several failures and a bout with tuberculosis; The Greeks Had
A Word For It (1930), a comedy, later became the basis for the screenplay of How
To Marry A Millionaire; as few of her plays had been particularly successful,
moved to Hollywood from New York in 1930 and began to write screenplays such as
Morning Glory (1934) and Camille (1937); her play The Old Maiden, based on Edith
Wharton's novel of the same name, won the Pulitzer Prize for Drama in 1935, but
caused a furor among critics as it was an adaptation, not an original work, and
led to the establishment of the "Critics' Choice Award" (which she never won)
as an alternative to the Pulitzer.
