Critic Dramatists
Snt,—In his- review of Ross and the New Yorker Prof. Brogan was unfair -to dramatic critics. He describes Season in the Sun as "the only successful play by a dramatic critic since William Archer wrote The Green Goddess." Leaving out Shaw, Masefield, Houghton and Allan Monkhouse for various reasons—dates and the fact that some of their successes were not " commercial "—there are three critics whose records contradict Prof. Brogan. Each was (like Archer) President of the Critics' Circle. Each had a play or plays put on in the West End to run for more than 100 performances. They are W. A. Darlington, Charles Morgan and St. John Ervine. And what about Robert E. Sherwood, who was dramatic editor of Vanity Fair (not to mention editor of the New York Herald) before writing his several stage successes ? A less strict aneasurement of what is a dramatic critic and what is a success might produce other names.- Of course, as we all know, some critics have written plays since 1923 which were anything
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