Playwrights
10 people, across 3 fields.
Tennessee Williams 1911–1983Literature & DramaPlaywright whose A Streetcar Named Desire and Cat on a Hot Tin Roof defined American theater.
Langston Hughes 1901–1967Literature & DramaHarlem Renaissance poet and writer whose work celebrated Black life and challenged racial injustice.
Arthur Miller 1915–2005Literature & DramaPlaywright whose Death of a Salesman and The Crucible are cornerstones of American drama.
Stephen Sondheim 1930–2021MusicComposer and lyricist whose formal and psychological innovations transformed the American musical theater.
Eugene O'Neill 1888–1953Literature & DramaPlaywright whose psychologically complex dramas established serious American theater on the world stage.
Gore Vidal 1925–2012Scholars & Public IntellectualsNovelist and essayist who wrote the United States as an empire in decline
Edward Albee 1928–2016Literature & DramaWrote Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?, won three Pulitzer Prizes, and never one for that play.August Wilson 1945–2005Literature & DramaPlaywright whose ten-play cycle chronicled African American life across the twentieth century.
Lorraine Hansberry 1930–1965Literature & DramaPlaywright whose 'A Raisin in the Sun' brought Black family life, housing discrimination, and aspiration to Broadway.
Larry Kramer 1935–2020Civil Rights & Social ReformWriter who co-founded Gay Men's Health Crisis and ACT UP — forcing faster federal response to AIDS.