Going to Pieces

This early work by Alexander Woollcott was originally published in 1928 and we are now republishing it with a brand new introductory biography. 'Going to Pieces' is a collection of stories of Woollcott's friends in and out of the theatre. Alexander Humphreys Woollcott was born on the 19th January, 1887 in New Jersey, America and was a critic and commentator for The New Yorker magazine. One of New York's most prolific drama critics, Woollcott was an owlish character whose caustic wit either joyously attracted or vehemently repelled the artistic communities of 1920s Manhattan. He was banned for a time from reviewing certain Broadway theatre shows and was frequently criticised for his ornate, florid style of writing. Woollcott was a prolific writer, and created a large body of work during his life, including 'Mrs Fiske: Her views on Actors, Acting and the Problems of Production' (1917) , 'The Command is Forward' (1919), 'Shouts and Murmurs' (1922), 'Mr. Dickens Goes to the Play' (1922), 'The Story of Irving Berlin' (1925), and several collections of his newspaper articles. Many more works followed until Woollcott's final book, The Portable Woollcott (1946) which was a posthumous anthology containing the best of his works.