born April 4, 1896, New Rochelle, N.Y., U.S.
died Nov. 14, 1955, New York, N.Y.
U.S. playwright.
Sherwood was a magazine editor in New York City and a member of the Algonquin Round Table, the centre of a New York literary coterie. He examined the pointlessness of war in his first play, The Road to Rome (1927). Idiot's Delight (1936), Abe Lincoln in Illinois (1938), and There Shall Be No Night (1940) won Pulitzer prizes. In 1938 he cofounded the Playwrights' Company, which became a major producing company. During World War II he wrote speeches for Pres. Franklin D. Roosevelt and headed the overseas branch of the Office of War Information (1941–44). His book Roosevelt and Hopkins (1948) won a Pulitzer Prize. Many of his plays were adapted for film; his original screenplays include The Best Years of Our Lives (1946, Academy Award).