Maxwell Anderson was educated at University of North Dakota and Stanford University. He began his professional career as a teacher and then journalist before writing dozens of plays including Saturday’s Children (1927), Elizabeth the Queen (1930), Mary of Scotland (1933), Both Your Houses (1933), Winterset (1935), High Tor (1936), Key Largo (1939), Eve of St. Mark (1942), Joan of Lorraine (1946), Lost in the Stars (1949), and Bad Seed (1954). Both Your Houses garnered Anderson a Pulitzer Prize.

Anderson wrote the book and lyrics for the Broadway play Knickerbocker Holiday (1948), which included the hit “September Song,” and for Lost in the Stars (1949).

- Jeremy Wilson