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'''James Maxwell Anderson''' (December 15, 1888 – February 28, 1959) was an American playwright and screen writer, best known for films such as ''Key Largo'', starring Humphrey Bogart.

'''James Maxwell Anderson''' (December 15, 1888 – February 28, 1959) was an American playwright and screenwriter, best known for films such as ''Key Largo'', starring Humphrey Bogart.

The son of a [[conservative]] [[Baptist]] minister, Anderson rebelled, writing, “The gods of men are sillier than their kings and queens, and emptier and more powerless.” He became an ardent [[socialist]], a development he apparently associated with reading [http://www.econlib.org/library/Enc/bios/Veblen.html Thorstein Veblen]’s ''[http://oll.libertyfund.org/index.php?option=com_staticxt&staticfile=show.php%3Ftitle=1657&Itemid=27 The Theory of the Leisure Class]'' (1899) in college.  

The son of a [[conservative]] [[Baptist]] minister, Anderson rebelled, writing, “The gods of men are sillier than their kings and queens, and emptier and more powerless.” He became an ardent [[socialist]], a development he apparently associated with reading [http://www.econlib.org/library/Enc/bios/Veblen.html Thorstein Veblen]’s ''[http://oll.libertyfund.org/index.php?option=com_staticxt&staticfile=show.php%3Ftitle=1657&Itemid=27 The Theory of the Leisure Class]'' (1899) in college.  

Anderson's focus was on the [[ideology|ideological]] [[indoctrination]] of youth into socialism. In 1912, he wrote that that he and his wife (who he said was “also a Socialist”) intended their son “to have liberal education along that [socialist] line.” In fact, Anderson was fired from his first job, as a high school principal in Minnewaukan, North Dakota, for abusing his position to [[propaganda|propagandize]] his students with his [[radical]] views. He was again fired, from a job as chairman of the English Department at California’s Whittier College, for his public stance opposing the [[U.S.]] entry into [[World War I]].

Anderson's focus was on the [[ideology|ideological]] [[indoctrination]] of youth into socialism. In 1912, he wrote that that he and his wife (who he said was “also a Socialist”) intended their son “to have liberal education along that [socialist] line.” In fact, Anderson was fired from his first job, as a high school principal in Minnewaukan, North Dakota, for abusing his position to [[propaganda|propagandize]] his students with his [[radical]] views. He was again fired, from a job as chairman of the English Department at California's Whittier College, for his public stance opposing the [[U.S.]] entry into [[World War I]].

His greatest success was the 1935 play ''[http://books.google.com/books?id=6P8jBxOKYacC Winterset]'', a tragedy in verse loosely based on the [[Sacco and Vanzetti]] case, which won him both commercial success and the Critics’ Circle Award. In the play, the judge is described as "crazy as a bedbug," and the accused is innocent.

His greatest success was the 1935 play ''[https://books.google.com/books?id=6P8jBxOKYacC Winterset]'', a tragedy in verse loosely based on the [[Sacco and Vanzetti]] case, which won him both commercial success and the Critics’ Circle Award. In the play, the judge is described as "crazy as a bedbug," and the accused is innocent.

==Sources==

==Sources==

Maxwell Anderson, quoted at [http://www.positiveatheism.org/hist/quotes/quote-a1.htm Positive Atheism's Big List of Quotations], attributed to Ira D. Cardiff, ''[http://www.worldcat.org/oclc/1219087 What Great Men Think of Religion]'', via James A Haught, ed, ''[http://search.barnesandnoble.com/2000-Years-of-Disbelief/James-A-Haught/e/9781573920674 2000 Years of Disbelief: Famous People with the Courage to Doubt]''

Maxwell Anderson, quoted at [http://www.positiveatheism.org/hist/quotes/quote-a1.htm Positive Atheism's Big List of Quotations], attributed to Ira D. Cardiff, ''[http://www.worldcat.org/oclc/1219087 What Great Men Think of Religion]'', via James A Haught, ed, ''[http://search.barnesandnoble.com/2000-Years-of-Disbelief/James-A-Haught/e/9781573920674 2000 Years of Disbelief: Famous People with the Courage to Doubt]''

"To John M. Gillette," September 15, 1912, in Maxwell Anderson (Laurence G. Avery, Ed.), ''[http://books.google.com/books?id=iINNqp6FxU0C Dramatist in America: Letters of Maxwell Anderson, 1912-1958]'' (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2001) ISBN 0807849405, p. 3

"To John M. Gillette," September 15, 1912, in Maxwell Anderson (Laurence G. Avery, Ed.), ''[https://books.google.com/books?id=iINNqp6FxU0C Dramatist in America: Letters of Maxwell Anderson, 1912-1958]'' (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2001) ISBN 0807849405, p. 3

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[[Category:Authors]]

 

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[[Category:Atheists]]

[[Category:Playwrights]]