Lynn Riggs

Rollie Lynn Riggs (August 31, 1899 – June 30, 1954) was an author, poet and playwright born on a farm near Claremore, Oklahoma. His mother was 1/8th Cherokee, and when he was two years old, his mother secured his Cherokee Allotment for him. He was able to draw on his Allotment to help support his writing. [http://www.okfriends.net/riggs.htm "Lynn Riggs: An Oklahoma Treasure"] , [http://www.okfriends.net/index.htm Friends of Libraries in Oklahoma] ] Riggs wrote 21 full-length plays, several short stories, poems, and a television script. He was educated at the Eastern University Preparatory School in Claremore, Oklahoma, starting in 1912. Riggs graduated from high school in 1917, and travelled to Chicago and New York. He worked for the Adams Express Company in Chicago, wrote for the Wall Street Journal, sold books at Macy's and swept out Wall Street offices. Returning to Oklahoma in 1919, he wrote for the "Oil and Gas Journal". Travelling to Los Angeles, Riggs worked as an extra in the theatre, and a copyeditor at the Los Angeles Times, which published his first poem. Riggs entered the University of Oklahoma in 1920, and taught English there from 1922-1923. [http://members.cox.net/lynn.riggs/LynnRiggs.htm "Lynn Riggs"] , Mary Hays Marable and Elaine Boylan, pages 93-96 of "A Handbook of Oklahoma Writers", University of Oklahoma Press, Norman, Oklahoma, 1939, ASIN B0006AONUW .] However, Riggs did not graduate after he became ill with tuberculosis during his senior year. Riggs then moved to Santa Fe, New Mexico for health reasons and soon joined a group of artists. However, in 1926 Riggs moved back to New York hoping to work in the Broadway theatres.

His first major production was a one-act play, "Knives from Syria", which was produced by the Santa Fe Players in 1925. He began teaching at the Lewis Institute, Chicago, while continuing to write. In 1928 he received a John Simon Guggenheim Fellowship and travelled to Europe. Riggs began writing his most famous play, "Green Grow the Lilacs" in the Cafe De Deux Magots on the Left Bank in Paris. He completed this play five months later in Cannes-Sur-Mer, in Southern France.

He then lived in Santa Fe, Los Angeles, and New York, and was a screenwriter for Paramount and Universal Studios. After serving in the military 1942-44 he worked on an historical drama for Western Reserve University, published a short story, "Eben, The Hound, and the Hare" (1952), and worked on a novel set in Oklahoma. He moved to Shelter Island, New York after he started receiving a steady income when "Green Grow The Lilacs" was adapted into the very successful play Oklahoma! in 1943.

He died on June 30, 1954, of stomach cancer in New York City. [Information from: Yale University, Beinecke Rare Book And Manuscript Library, Yale Collection Of American Literature, Lynn Riggs Papers, New Haven, CT, November, 1993 Last Updated: February 2000] Claremore, Oklahoma is home to the Lynn Riggs Memorial. [ [http://members.cox.net/lynn.riggs/lrmem.htm#linx "The Lynn Riggs Memorial"] webpage]

Plays

Selected plays include::"Big Lake" (1926):"Sump'n Like Wings" (1926-28):"A Lantern to See By" (1926-28):"Rancor" (1926-28):"Roadside" (1929):"Green Grow the Lilacs" (1931)

His first play was Cuckoo in 1920, a farce about college fraternities that was performed at the University of Oklahoma in the spring of 1921. The Theatre Guild produced his most well-known play, "Green Grow The Lilacs", on Broadway in 1931, where it ran for 64 performances. The musical "Oklahoma!", based on Riggs' play, opened on Broadway on March 31, 1943, and ran until May 29, 1948 for 2,212 performances.

References

ources

* [http://www.odl.state.ok.us/ocb/04win.htm Oklahoma Department of Libraries]

External links

* [http://webtext.library.yale.edu/xml2html/beinecke.riggs.nav.html Riggs papers at Yale]
* [http://www.rnh.com/theatricals/index.php?page=biographies&person_id=131 Riggs bio on R&H Theatricals site]
* [http://members.cox.net/lynn.riggs/ Lynn Riggs Memorial Website]
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