born Jan. 19, 1887, Phalanx, N.J., U.S.
died Jan. 23, 1943, New York, N.Y.
U.S. author, critic, and actor.
He joined the New York Times in 1909 and became its drama critic in 1914. Known for his acerbic wit, he became the self-appointed leader of the Algonquin Round Table, the informal luncheon club at New York's Algonquin Hotel in the 1920s and '30s that included Groucho Marx , Dorothy Parker , Robert Sherwood , and George S. Kaufman . He later contributed articles to The New Yorker and wrote such books as Two Gentlemen and a Lady (1928) and While Rome Burns (1934). He inspired the play The Man Who Came to Dinner (1939).