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Anita Rowe Block

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Anita Rowe Block
Born
Anita Wangrow

(1915-02-07)February 7, 1915
New York City, New York, U.S.
DiedJuly 1979 (aged 64)
New Jersey
Occupation
  • Novelist
  • short story writer
  • playwright
Period1944-1963
Notable worksLove and Kisses

Anita Rowe Block (born Anita Wangrow; February 7, 1915 – July 1979) was an American novelist, playwright, and short story writer. She wrote the short story anthology Love is a Four Letter Word (1958) and the novel Necessary End (1960). Her play Love and Kisses was staged on Broadway in 1963, and later adapted into a 1965 film released by Universal Pictures.

Life and career

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The daughter of David and Hannah Wangrow,[1] Anita Wangrow was born in New York City on 7 February 1915.[2][3] On May 8, 1934, she married Melvin A. Block.[4] Her husband was the son of the founder of Block Drug and Melvin succeeded his father as president of that company. The couple lived in Deal, New Jersey.[5] They had two children, James and Susan.[6][5]

Block started writing during World War II while her husband was serving in the United States Air Force.[7] Bored with her life at a military base in the American South, she began writing for women's magazines to entertain herself.[6] She contributed short stories to Cosmopolitan[8] and Collier's Weekly.[9] In 1958, a collection of her short stories, Love is a Four Letter Word, was published by Doubleday.[10][11] It was republished in 1960 and 1970.[12] She also wrote the novel Necessary End (1960, Doubleday),[13] a book about a successful and ambitious pharmaceutical businessman suddenly confronting the diagnosis of debilitating cardiac disease.[14][15]

In November 1963 Block's play Love and Kisses about teenage marriage[16] was given its premiere in Boston at the Wilbur Theatre.[17] The following month it transferred to Broadway's Music Box Theatre in a production directed and produced by Dore Schary.[18] It received mixed reviews in the press.[19][20] While it only had a short run,[18] it was adapted into the 1965 film of the same name starring Ricky Nelson.[21] It has been revived multiple times in American regional theatre.[22][23].[24]

Block died in New Jersey in July 1979 at the age of 64.[3] She was a member of Temple Beth Miriam in Elberon, New Jersey.[25]

References

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Citations

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  1. ^ Anita Wangrow in the 1920 United States Federal Census, New York New York, Manhattan Assembly District 23, District 1490
  2. ^ Anita Wangrow in the New York, New York, U.S., Birth Index, 1910–1965, Certificate Number 9573
  3. ^ a b Anita Block in the U.S., Social Security Death Index, 1935–2014
  4. ^ Anita Wangrow in the New York, New York, U.S., Extracted Marriage Index, 1866–1937, Certificate Number 9438
  5. ^ a b "Melvin A. Block Dies, Shore Philanthropist". The Daily Record. March 13, 1963. p. 4.
  6. ^ a b "Feminine Author Advises Work For Happy Living". Appleton Post Crescent. February 26, 1960. p. A11.
  7. ^ Ribalow 1969, p. 27.
  8. ^ Block, Anita Rowe (December 1957). "Wild Oats". Cosmopolitan.
  9. ^ Block, Anita Rowe (September 30, 1944). "The Ivory Tower". Collier's Weekly.
  10. ^ Peden, William (January 25, 1958). "Short Fiction vs. Long". Saturday Review: 17–18.
  11. ^ W. P. (February 16, 1958). "Short Turns With Despair; Love Is a Four Letter Word. By Anita Rowe Block. 261 pp. New York: Doubleday & Co. $3.95". The New York Times. p. BR33.
  12. ^ Staff of R.R. Bowker Company 1983, pp. 1595, 1694.
  13. ^ O'Brien, E. D. (August 6, 1960). "A Literary Lounger". Illustrated London News. p. 244.
  14. ^ Friedman, Robert (March 26, 1960). "Between Book Ends: Immovable Cardiac and Irresistible Ambition". St. Louis Post-Dispatch. p. 4A.
  15. ^ William, Wirt (January 31, 1960). "Scott; NECESSARY END. By Anita Rove Block. 427 pp. New York: Doubleday & Co. $4.50. Powell Takes the Comeback Trail". The New York Times. p. BR34.
  16. ^ Wilson, Barbara L. (November 24, 1963). "Playwright Block Bases Comedy on Teenage Marriage". The Philadelphia Inquirer. p. 25.
  17. ^ Kelly, Kevin (November 19, 1963). "Love and Kisses, Pleasant, Funny But Also Mindless". The Boston Globe. p. 38.
  18. ^ a b Rigdon 1966, p. 154.
  19. ^ Murdock, Henry T. (December 3, 1963). "Love and Kisses Smacks of Success". The Philadelphia Inquirer. p. 20.
  20. ^ Taubman, Howard (December 19, 1963). "Theater: Comedy Opens; 'Love and Kisses' at the Music Box". The New York Times. p. 3.
  21. ^ Goble 1999, p. 44.
  22. ^ "Love and Kisses at Alhambra". The St. Augustine Record. September 12, 1979. p. 32.
  23. ^ "Family Comedy". The Los Angeles Times. October 11, 1990. p. J2.
  24. ^ "Hale Center Theater Offers Loves and Kisses". The Daily Herald. July 23, 1995. p. 25.
  25. ^ "Services: Block". Asbury Park Press. July 31, 1979. p. 13.

Bibliography

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  • Goble, Alan, ed. (1999). The Complete Index to Literary Sources in Film. Walter de Gruyter. ISBN 3-110-95194-0.
  • Ribalow, Harold U., ed. (1969). My Name Aloud: Jewish Stories by Jewish Writers. A. S. Barnes & Company. ISBN 9780498067631.
  • Rigdon, Walter, ed. (1966). The Biographical Encyclopedia - Who's Who of the American Theatre. Heinemann.
  • Staff of R.R. Bowker Company, ed. (1983). Fiction, 1876-1983: A Bibliography of United States Editions; Classified Author Index, Main Author Index, Title Index, Key to Publishers and Distributors Abbreviations/directory of Publishers and Distributors. Vol. 1. R.R. Bowker Company. ISBN 9780835218818.
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