George Jean Nathan and the Making of Modern American Drama Criticism. By Thomas F. Connolly. Madison, NJ: Fairleigh Dickinson University Press (Cranbury, NJ: AUP), 2000; pp. 172. $35.00 hardcover.

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According to Thomas F. Connolly, George Jean Nathan (1882–1958) stands as “the first modern American drama critic” (13). Nathan's career spanned the early half of the twentieth century, beginning in 1905 as reviewer for the NewYork Herald, followed by a position as coeditor with H. L. Mencken of The Smart Set (1914–1924) and, later, as cofounder with Mencken of the American Mercury (1923–1932), and concluding as a contributor to The American Spectator, Newsweek, and Esquire. In addition to his magazine and newspaper work, Nathan authored thirty-four books of theatre criticism and dramatic theory, becoming the most widely read theatre critic in the nation.