Hatcher Hughes


Hatcher Hughes was an American playwright who lived in Grover, NC, as featured in the book Images of America. He was on the teaching staff of Columbia University from 1912 onward. He was awarded the 1924 Pulitzer Prize for his 1922 play Hell-Bent Fer Heaven.

Early life and education

He was the tenth of eleven children of Andrew Jackson Hughes and Martha Jane Gold Hughes. He received both his undergraduate degree and master's degree in English from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

Career

Hell-bent fer Heaven was performed 122 times at the Klaw Theater. The play starred multiple Tony Award and Pulitzer Prize winner George Abbott and Clara Blandick. It was made into a movie in 1926.
Other noted authors of plays and friends at the Klaw stage during Hughes's time were George Bernard Shaw and Oscar Wilde. Hughes was a professor at Columbia University. A UNC graduate, he returned often to NC to speak and provide insight on Broadway. His detailed correspondence from New York to North Carolina and his mother provides a wealth of information to this day for Silver Screen researchers and archivists at the University of North Carolina.

Family

In 1930 he married Janet Ranney Cool. The marriage produced a daughter, Ann Ranney Hughes. During the First World War, he served as an Army captain. He and his family divided their time between their home in New York City and their farm in West Cornwall, Connecticut.

Works