George Jean Nathan Biography

George Jean Nathan (born February 14, 1882, Fort Wayne, Indiana - died April 8, 1958, New York, New York) was a U.S. drama critic and editor. Famous for the erudition and cynicism of his reviews, Nathan was an early champion of Eugene O'Neill. Together with H.L. Mencken he co-founded magazines The Smart Set in 1914 and The American Mercury in 1924. He was also a founder and an editor (1932–35) of the American Spectator, and after 1943 he wrote a syndicated column for the New York Journal-American. His criticism appeared in the following: Mr. George Jean Nathan Presents (1917); The Critic and the Drama (1922); The Testament of a Critic (1931); Since Ibsen (1933); The World of George Jean Nathan, ed. by Charles Angoff (1952); and The Magic Mirror, edited by T. G. Curtiss (1960). Nathan's philosophy of criticism is laid out in Autobiography of an Attitude (1925).

Nathan became something of ladies man. (He published his paean to The Bachelor Life in 1941.) His most famous romance was with actress Lillian Gish. Their relationship began in the late 1920's and lasted almost a decade, with Gish repeatedly refusing his marriage proposals. Nathan eventually married stage actress Julie Haydon, who was much younger, from 1955 until his death in 1958, aged 76.

Nathan was the model for the critic Addison De Witt in the film All About Eve.

Quotes:

• Art is the sex of imagination.
• Patriotism is often an arbitrary veneration of real estate above principles.