William Vaughn Moody


William Vaughn Moody was an American dramatist and poet. Moody was author of The Great Divide, first presented under the title of The Sabine Woman at the Garrick Theatre in Chicago on April 12, 1906. His poetic dramas included The Masque of Judgment, The Fire Bringer, and The Death of Eve.

Biography

Born at Spencer, Indiana, his parents died while he was a boy, and he had to work to help support himself while he completed his education. After attending New Albany High School he went on to Harvard University, where he was awarded the George B. Sohier Prize for literature and earned an A.B. in 1893 and an A.M. in 1894.
He taught English at Harvard and Radcliffe until 1895, when he went to Chicago where he was an instructor at the University of Chicago, and from 1901 to 1907 assistant professor of English and rhetoric. He received the degree of Litt.D. from Yale in 1908, and was a member of the American Academy of Arts and Letters.
Moody died from brain cancer at Colorado Springs at the age of 41.

Works

His complete works, including The Death of Eve, a fragment of the third member of the proposed trilogy mentioned above, were edited with an introduction by John M. Manly.