DRINKWATER, JOHN

born June 1, 1882, Leytonstone, Essex, Eng. died March 25, 1937, London English poet, playwright, and critic, remembered as a typical man of letters of the Georgian age of the 1910s and 1920s. He was a successful promoter of repertory theatre in England and the author of popular chronicle dramas. In 1907 he became manager and producer for the Pilgrim Players, which developed into the Birmingham Repertory Theatre Company. He published several volumes of verse (including The Collected Poems, 2 vol., 1923); critical studies (William Morris, 1912; Swinburne, 1913; and others); and several historical plays, of which Abraham Lincoln (1918) was produced with great success both in London and in the U.S. His autobiography appeared in Inheritance, 2 vol. (1931) and Discovery (1932).