History of Western Theatre: 17th Century to Now/Alphabetical list of playwrights (died 1855-1955)

This list of recent authors has been added for the benefit of readers in jurisdictions where the copyright expires a fixed period after the authors life, rather than date of publication or renewal.

Annotated by year of death


  • Ade, George 1944
  • Afford, Malcolm 1954
  • Afinogenov, Alexander 1941
  • Anderson, Arthur 1942
  • Andreyev, Leonid 1919
  • Arlt, Roberto
  • Arniches, Carlos 1943
  • Artaud, Antonin 1948
  • Arthur, Joseph 1906
  • Asche, Oscar 1936
  • Bacon, Frank 1922
  • Baker, George Melville 1890
  • Balderston, John L. 1954
  • Bangs, John Kendrick 1922
  • Barrie, James Murray 1937
  • Barry, Phillip 1949
  • Baring, Maurice 1945
  • Beach, Rex 1949
  • Beith, John Hay 1952
  • Belasco, David 1930
  • Bennett, Arnold 1931
  • Benelli, Sam 1949
  • Besier, Rudolf 1942
  • Binyon, Laurence 1943
  • Birinski, Leo 1951
  • Bjørnson, Bjørnstjerne 1910
  • Black, Stephen 1931
  • Brown, Abbie Farwell 1927
  • Bulgakov, Mikhail 1940
  • Burnard, Francis Cowley 1917
  • Burrill, Mary P. 1946
  • Byron, Henry James 1884
  • Calderon, George 1915
  • Caine, Sir Hall 1931
  • Čapek, Karel 1938
  • Chekov, Anton 1904
  • Collette 1953
  • Collison, Wilson 1941
  • Colton, John 1946
  • Cowl, Jane 1950
  • Davis, Richard Harding 1916
  • de Lorde, André 1942
  • Dickens, Charles 1880
  • Dixon, Thomas, Jr. 1946
  • Dowson, Ernest 1900
  • Drinkwater, John 1937
  • Drury, William Price 1948
  • Du Maurier, Guy 1915
  • Duprez, Fred 1938
  • Epstein, Philip G. 1952
  • Ewing, Juliana Horatia 1885
  • Feydeau, Georges 1921
  • Fitch, Clyde 1909
  • Flecker, James Elroy 1915
  • Fort, Garrett 1945
  • Frank, Bruno 1945
  • Fulton, Maude 1950
  • Gadkari, Ram Ganesh 1919
  • Galsworthy, John 1933
  • Gates, Eleanor 1950
  • Gilbert, W. S. 1911
  • Giraudoux, Jean 1944
  • Glaspell, Susan 1948
  • Glass, Montague 1934
  • Goddard, Charles 1951
  • Gorky, Maxim 1936
  • Granville-Barker, Harley 1946
  • Gregory, Lady Augusta 1933
  • Hackett, Walter C. 1944
  • Hasler, Karel 1941
  • Hazelton, George Cochrane 1921
  • Hauptmann, Gerhart 1946
  • Hawtrey, Charles 1923
  • Herne, James A.1901
  • Hoffe, Monckton 1951
  • Hopwood, Avery 1928
  • Howard, Sidney Coe 1939
  • Howells, William Dean 1920
  • Hughes, Hatcher 1945
  • Hunyady, Sándor 1942
  • Ibsen, Henrik 1906
  • Jackson, Frederick 1953
  • James, Henry 1916
  • Jones Henry Arthur 1929
  • Kailasam, T. P. 1946
  • Klein, Charles 1919
  • Lavedan, Henri 1940
  • Law, Arthur 1913
  • Le Pera, Alfredo 1935
  • Lewis, Sinclair 1951
  • Locke, Edward 1945
  • Lonsdale, Frederick 1954
  • Lorca, Federico García 1936


  • Magnus, Julian 1905
  • Mack, Willard 1934
  • MacSwiney, Terence 1920
  • Maeterlinck, Maurice 1949
  • Mayo, Margaret 1951
  • Mayakovsky, Vladimir 1930
  • McKinnel, Norman 1932
  • Millay, Edna St. Vincent 1950
  • Moffat, Graham 1951
  • Moore, Thomas Sturge 1944
  • Morton, Michael 1931
  • Mühsam, Erich 1934
  • Manners, J. Hartley 1928
  • Mizner, Wilson 1933
  • Oliphant, Ernest Henry Clark 1936
  • O'Riordan, Conal Holmes O'Connell 1948
  • O'Neill, Eugene 1953
  • Parker, Louis N. 1944
  • Pirandello, Luigi 1936
  • Pinero, Arthur Wing 1934
  • Prasad, Jaishankar 1937
  • Przybyszewska, Stanisława 1935
  • Raghava, Bellary 1946
  • Rostand, Edmond 1918
  • Robins, Elizabeth 1952
  • Rudd, Steele 1935
  • Sardou, Victorien 1907
  • Schnitzler, Arthur 1931
  • Shaw, George Bernard 1950
  • Shawqi, Ahmed 1932
  • Sheldon, Edward 1946
  • Shiels, George 1949
  • Sierra, Gregorio Martínez 1947
  • Steell, Willis 1942
  • Strindberg, August 1912
  • Sudermann, Hermann 1928
  • Summers, Montague 1948
  • Sutro, Alfred 1933
  • Swears, Herbert 1946
  • Swinburne, Algernon Charles1909
  • Synge, John Millington 1905


  • Thomas, Augustus 1934
  • Toller, Ernst 1939
  • Turner, Walter J. 1946
  • Tennyson, Alfred, Lord 1892
  • Thomas, Brandon1918
  • Thompson, Alexander. M 1948
  • Turgenev, Ivan 1885
  • Von Horváth, Ödön 1938
  • Walsh, William Thomas 1949
  • Walter, Eugene 1941
  • Webster, Jean 1916
  • Wedekind, Frank 1918
  • Willard, John 1942
  • Wilson, Harry Leon 1939
  • Wilde, Percival 1953
  • Yeats, W. B. 1939
  • Zangwill, Israel 1926
  • Zola, Emile 1902