Evansville has a long history of famous writers, novelists, and playwrights. From popular novels to hit television shows, here are four Evansville-born writers who embraced the power of the pen.
Albion Fellows Bacon
Largely remembered for her campaigns to improve public housing standards, Albion Fellows Bacon was both a reformer and author. Bacon wrote several devotional books and a number of pageants, but she was most known for her book “Beauty for Ashes,” wherein she recorded her campaign to help organize the Indiana Housing Association in 1911.
Paul Osborn
Paul Osborn was a playwright and screenwriter best known for writing the screen adaptation of “East of Eden,” “South Pacific,” “The Yearling,” and “The World of Suzie Wong and Sayonara.” Osborn also won a Tony Award for best Broadway revival in 1980 for his play “Morning’s at Seven,” which originally opened on Broadway in 1939.
Marilyn Durham
The writer of three novels, “The Man Who Loved Cat Dancing,” “Dutch Uncle,” and “Flambard’s Confession,” Durham also worked as an instructor for McGraw-Hill’s Continuing Education Center for more than 10 years and taught Sunday school at Trinity United Methodist Church in Downtown. “The Man Who loved Cat Dancing,” was adapted into a film in 1973, starring Burt Reynolds and Sarah Miles.
Molly Newman
A graduate of Central High School, Molly Newman is a television writer and executive producer at CBS. While at the University of Denver, she launched her career as a playwright by adapting the book “Quilters: Women and the Domestic Art” into a musical that was performed on Broadway and at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington, D.C. She was nominated for a Tony Award for the musical in 1985. She has also written for and produced several hit TV shows, including “The Larry Sanders Show,” “The Tracey Ulman Show,” “Frasier, Murphy Brown,” and “Code Black.”
