Lionel Abel

Lionel Abel (1910- 19 April 2001, in Manhattan, New York) was an eminent Jewish American playwright, essayist and theater critic. His first success was a tragedy, Absalom, staged off-Broadway in 1956 and winner of the Obie award. It was followed by three other works of drama, before he turned to criticism. He is best known for coining the term metatheatre in his book of the same title.

Career

Abel never attended college, but was offered a professor position at the State University of New York at Buffalo because of his writings. After teaching appointments at Columbia and Rutgers Universities and at the Pratt Institute, he concluded his academic career in the English Department of the University at Buffalo, before retiring to New York City.

He is also the author of several important translations from the French, including texts by André Breton and Guillaume Apollinaire. A lively and sometimes cantankerous polemicist, he counted numerous members of his generation's intellectual elite among his friends and sparring partners, including Delmore Schwartz, Meyer Schapiro, Clement Greenberg, Robert Lowell, Randall Jarrell, Lionel Trilling, James Agee, Mary McCarthy, Hannah Arendt, Leslie Fiedler and Elizabeth Hardwick.

Personal life

Born in Brooklyn, Abel was the son of Alter Abelson, a rabbi and poet, and of Anna Schwartz Abelson, a writer of short stories. His brother, Raziel Abelson, is a professor emeritus of philosophy at New York University. Jean-Paul Sartre called Abel the most intelligent man in New York City. He was one of the signers of the Humanist Manifesto.

Works

Dramas

• "Absalom" (New York, Artist's Theatre, 1956)
• "The Death of Odysseus" (New York, Amato Theatre, 1953)
• "The Pretender" (New York, Cherry Lane Theatre, 1960)
• "The Wives" (New York, 1960)

Criticism

• Metatheatre; a new view of dramatic form (1963)
• Our first serious fascist? (1980)
• The Intellectual Follies: A Memoir of the Literary Venture in New York and Paris (1984)
• Sidney Hook's career: (the philosopher in politics) (1985)
• Important Nonsense (1987)
• Tragedy and Metatheatre: Essays on Dramatuc Form (2003)

Anthology

• Moderns on Tragedy: An Anthology of Modern and Relevant Opinions on the Substance and Meaning of Tragedy (1967)

Translations

• Camille Pissarro: Letters to His Son Lucien