Rose Franconia

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Rose Dorothy Lewin Franken (born December 28, 1895 in Gainesville , Texas as Rose Dorothy Lewin , † June 22, 1988 in Tucson , Arizona ) was an American author of novels , plays and screenplays . She was best known for depicting the life of her fictional protagonist Claudia.

Life

Youth and first success

Rose Dorothy Lewin came from an assimilated Jewish family. The parents separated shortly after she was born and the mother and four children moved back to live with her family in Harlem , New York . Rose was attending the Ethical Culture School and was about to start studying at Barnard College when she met oral surgeon Sigmund Walter Anthony Franken in 1913, whom she married. She gave up her plans for an academic education and opted for a life as a housewife. Between 1920 and 1928 she gave birth to three sons.

As a literary autodidact , she began to write short stories for her husband, who fully supported her in her writing ambitions. After her first novel, Pattern, was rejected by several publishing houses, she received an acceptance in 1925 from Maxwell Perkins , an influential editor at Sribner's and later a long-time friend. Pattern received good reviews but found few readers. Franken continued to write short stories and two plays, but they were not produced.

She achieved her breakthrough as a writer in 1932 with her third play Another Language . It set a new Broadway record for a debut work with 453 performances and was staged in London in 1932 . Another Language was made into a film by Edward H. Griffith in 1933 with Helen Hayes in the lead role.

After the death of her husband, who died of tuberculosis in 1932 , Franken went to Hollywood . In the years that followed, she wrote mostly undemanding stories that appeared in the women's magazines Redbook Magazine and Good Housekeeping , some of which were written in collaboration with author William Brown Meloney . They also worked together on the script for the film drama Geliebter Rebell , which hit the big screen in 1936. In the 1930s, Franken also co-wrote or provided the templates for other scripts for films produced by 20th Century Fox and Samuel Goldwyn . In addition, two novels by her appeared during this time, Twice Born (1935) and Of Great Riches (1937).

Career high point

In 1937 Franken married Meloney, who was ten years his junior, and moved with him to Lyme in rural Connecticut , where the two ran a farm. Between 1939 and 1941 they published three jointly written novels under the pseudonym Franken Maloney.

In 1939 Franken published the novel Claudia. The Story of a Marriage , which was previously featured as a sequel in Redbook Magazine . The episodically constructed stories about Claudia Naughton and her family met the taste of the times. The success was so great that Franconia spread Claudia's life in seven other novels over the next two decades. They have been reprinted many times, sometimes with new titles, and have also appeared in several anthologies. They were also the basis for two films, a play, a radio series and two TV productions on Dutch television. Some of the Claudia novels have also been translated into German and other languages.

Franken himself directed the stage adaptation Claudia , which was based on the first two novels of the cycle and premiered in New York in 1941. Critics described the piece as the "best" of the season. It was a huge success, which can be measured by 722 performances in the following two years. Selling the film rights alone brought in almost $ 200,000 for the author, an enormous sum for the time. The film adaptation, directed by Edmund Goulding , was released in 1943. As in the Broadway production, Dorothy McGuire played the title role and also took on this role in the 1946 sequel Claudia and David made by Walter Lang .

Franconia's next plays, Doctors Disagree , based on one of the novels she had written with her husband, and Outrageous Fortune , both staged in 1943, were less successful . In them, Franconia turned to social problems such as anti-Semitism , homophobia and discrimination against women in professional life. Critics accused the author of being sentimental and advised her to return to more domestic subjects.

Franken accepted the advice and with Soldier's Wife (1944) went back to motifs that had made the Claudia stories so popular. With 272 performances, the drama became Franconia's last stage success. 1948 failed with The Hallams , a sequel to Another Country , their attempt to build on the earlier theatrical triumphs. Another piece, The Wings , was not released.

Next life

Even in the 1950s, Franken continued to write despite repeated illnesses, albeit with less approval from the public. Her earlier successes had made her very wealthy and allowed her an upscale, sometimes lavish lifestyle, including the acquisition of several houses in New York.

In 1962, Franken published her autobiography When All Is Said and Done . In it she wrote that her main wish had always been directed towards a happy family life and that she only understood her literary activity as an occasional necessary diversion in the same.

Rose Franken died in Tucson in 1988 at the age of 92.

Main motives of her work

Most of Rose Franken's works can easily be related to aspects of her own biography: daughter of a middle-class Jewish family; Housewife and mother confronted with blows of fate; Writer whose success meets with discomfort in a male-dominated environment.

The play Another Language (1932) is about a self-determined young woman who rebels against her mother-in-law's lust for power and the narrow-mindedness of her sister-in-law. Although this is not explicitly stated, it is obvious to the viewer that conflicts in a middle-class Jewish family are being negotiated here in satirical form. In the later work Outrageous Fortune (1944) the Jewish theme is more obvious and the criticism of family constraints sharper. Franconia was ahead of its time with the denunciation of anti-Semitism and homophobia.

Your best-known protagonist Claudia designed Franken as a young woman who enters the marriage with David Naughton with naive expectations, but soon learns that the constraints of the domestic community cannot be reconciled with her desire for independence. The stories about Claudia all follow a similar dramaturgy: despite the difficulties the spouses face, they end up fighting. Marriage is portrayed as a community in which joys and sorrows reign, but the partners grow with the challenges they share. Strength, common sense, and compassion help women find happiness with a man.

The plays Doctors Disagree (1943) and Soldier's Wife (1944) dealt with the conflicts women experience when they choose independence and success in their professional lives. The protagonist in Doctor Disagree , a doctor, succeeds in asserting herself against both male and female despisers. In contrast, the main character in Soldier's Wife , who began a promising career as a writer during her husband's military service, opts for a domestic life after his husband's return.

Works

Novels and short stories

Claudia cycle
  • Claudia. The story of a marriage. Farrar & Rinehart, New York and Toronto 1939.
  • Claudia and David. Farrar & Rinehart, Bew York and Toronto 1940.
    • German-language edition: Claudia and David. Novel of a marriage. Translation by Ernst Schwarz and Franz Wollmann. Gerlach and Wiedling, Vienna 1952.
  • The Book of Claudia. Farrar & Rinehart, New York and Toronto 1941.
    • German-language edition: Claudia. Novel of a marriage. Translation by Ernst Schwarz and Franz Wollmann. Gerlach & Wiedling, Vienna 1951.
  • Another Claudia. Farrar & Rinehart, New York and Toronto 1943.
    • German-language edition: Claudia. Novel of a young marriage. Translation by Liselotte Luis. Verlag Der Greif, Wiesbaden 1950.
  • Young Claudia. Rinehart and Company, New York and Toronto 1946.
    • German-language edition: Love, Lust and Suffering. A novel about Claudia. Translation by Liselotte Luis. Verlag Der Greif, Wiesbaden 1950.
  • The Marriage of Claudia. Rinehart, New York 1948.
    • German-language edition: Everyone loves you, Claudia. Translation by Grete Steinböck. Zettner, Würzburg and Vienna 1958.
  • The Fragile Years. Doubleday, Garden City 1952.
  • The Antic Years. Doubleday, Garden City 1958.
Other
  • Pattern. C. Scribner's Sons, New York 1925.
  • Twice Born. C. Scribner's Sons, New York 1935.
  • Of Great Riches. Longsmans, Green & Co., New York and Toronto 1937.
  • Strange Victory. Farrar & Rinehart, New York and Toronto 1941 (with William Brown Meloney under the pseudonym Franken Meloney).
  • When Doctors Disagree. Farrar & Rinehart, New York and Toronto 1940 (with William Brown Meloney under the pseudonym Franken Meloney).
  • American Bred. Farrar & Rinehart, New York and Toronto 1941 (with William Brown Meloney under the pseudonym Franken Meloney).
  • Date. Doubleday, Garden City 1954.
  • Intimate story. Doubleday, Garden City 1955.
  • You're well out of the hospital. Doubleday, Garden City, 1966.

Plays

  • Another Language. A Comedy Drama in Three Acts. S. French, New York Los Angeles 1932.
    • German language edition: Another language. Translation by Sandra Hoch-Lucas. S. Fischer, Frankfurt am Main 1970.
  • Mr. Dooley Jr. A Comedy for Children. S. French, New York and Los Angeles 1932 (with Jane Lewin).
  • Claudia. A Comedy in Three Acts. Farrar & Rinehart, New York and Toronto 1941.
    • German-language edition: Claudia. Comedy in three acts. Translated by Herbert Sternberg. Printed in Elsnerhaus, Berlin 1947.
  • Outrageous Fortune. A Drama in Three Acts. S. French, New York and Los Angeles 1944.
  • Soldier's Wife. A Comedy in Three Acts. S. French, New York and Los Angeles 1945.
  • The Hallams. A play in three acts. S. French, New York 1948.

Autobiography

  • When All Is Said and Done. WH Allen, London 1962.

Filmography

Feature films

  • Another Language. USA 1933. Director: Edward H. Griffith . Screenplay: Herman J. Mankiewicz and Donald Ogden Stewart based on the play of the same name by Rose Franken.
  • Elinor Norton. USA 1934. Director: Hamilton MacFadden. Screenplay: Rose Franken and Philip Klein based on a novel by Mary Roberts Rinehart .
  • Aka Mary Dow. Director: Kurt Neumann . Screenplay: Rose Franken, Arthur Caesar and Gladys Unger based on a story by Forrest Halsey and William Allen Johnston.
  • Dante's inferno. USA 1935. Director: Harry Lachman . Script: Philipp Klein and Robert Yost. Rose Franken co-wrote an early version of the script ( treatment ).
  • Beloved enemy. German title: Beloved Rebel. USA 1936. Director: HC Potter . Script: Rose Franken, William Brown Meloney and John L. Balderston .
  • Made for Each Other. German title: An ideal couple . Directed by John Cromwell . Screenplay: Jo Swerling based on a story by Rose Franken.
  • Claudia. USA 1943. Director: Edmund Goulding . Screenplay: Morrie Ryskind based on the play of the same name by Rose Franken.
  • Claudia and David. USA 1946. Director: Walter Lang . Screenplay: Rose Franken and William Brown Meloney based on the novel of the same name by Rose Franken.
  • The Secret Heart. German title: Secret of the Heart. USA 1946. Director: Robert Z. Leonard . Screenplay: Whitfield Cook and Anne Morrison Chapin based on a story by Rose Franken and William Brown Meloney.

Television productions

  • Claudia. Netherlands 1959. Director: Willy van Hermit. Script: Rose Franken.
  • Claudia and David. Netherlands 1960. Director: Willy van Hermit. Script: Rose Franken.

literature

Web links

personal data
SURNAME Franconia, rose
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Franken, Rose Dorothy Lewin (full name); Lewin, Rose Dorothy
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American writer of novels, plays and screenplays
DATE OF BIRTH December 28, 1895
PLACE OF BIRTH Gainesville , Texas
DATE OF DEATH June 22, 1988
Place of death Tucson , Arizona