N. Richard Nash facts for kids

N. Richard Nash (born Nathan Richard Nusbaum, June 8, 1913 – December 11, 2000) was a famous American writer. He wrote many plays for Broadway, which are big theater shows. He was also known for writing screenplays for movies and television, and even novels. One of his most famous works is the play The Rainmaker.

Early Life and Education

N. Richard Nash was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. His father, S. L. Nusbaum, worked as a bookbinder. Nash was the youngest of his parents' children and their only son.

Before becoming a writer, he even worked as a boxer, earning ten dollars for each match! He finished high school in 1930. After that, he went to the University of Pennsylvania. There, he studied English and philosophy, which helped him become a great thinker and writer.

A Career in Writing

N. Richard Nash wrote two books about philosophy early in his career. These were called The Athenian Spirit and The Wounds of Sparta.

Starting with Plays

Nash wrote his very first play, Parting at Imsdorf, in 1940. This play was so good that it won an award called the Maxwell Anderson Verse Drama Award.

He then wrote a funny play inspired by William Shakespeare called The Second Best Bed. This play was shown on Broadway in 1946. Its success led him to write many more plays for the stage.

Famous Plays and Awards

Some of his other well-known plays include:

• The Young and Fair (1948)
• See the Jaguar (1952)
• The Rainmaker (1954)

See the Jaguar won him two special awards: the International Drama Award in Cannes and the Prague Award.

The Rainmaker: A Big Hit

The Rainmaker is one of Nash's most famous works. It first started as a short TV show in 1953. Later, he turned it into a full-length play for Broadway. The play was so popular that it was translated into over 40 different languages!

The Rainmaker was also made into a Hollywood movie in 1956. Famous actors like Burt Lancaster and Katharine Hepburn starred in it. Later, it was even turned into a Broadway musical called 110 in the Shade.

Nash also helped create a TV series called Here Come the Brides, which ran from 1968 to 1970. He wrote the first episode for the show.

From Screenplays to Novels

In the 1950s, Nash moved to Hollywood to write the movie script for The Rainmaker. Later, he decided to try writing novels. This happened after a play he wrote, Echoes (1972), didn't do well on Broadway. He also had a movie script called Macho that he couldn't sell.

Nash decided to quickly turn his Macho script into a novel. He wrote the book, called Cry Macho, in just two weeks! It was published in 1975. Even though movie studios had said no to his script, they loved the book. They even bought the rights to make it into a movie. When they asked him to write the movie script, he gave them the exact same one they had rejected before, and they loved it!

Over the years, many people tried to make Cry Macho into a movie. Finally, in 2020, it was announced that Clint Eastwood would direct and star in a movie version. The film was released in 2021 by Warner Bros. Pictures and HBO Max.

More Works

After Cry Macho, Nash found that writing novels gave him more freedom than writing plays. He wrote many more screenplays, novels, and plays throughout his career.

Some of his other screenplays include:

• Nora Prentiss (1947)
• The Sainted Sisters (1948)
• Helen of Troy (1956)
• Porgy and Bess (1959)

His other Broadway shows include:

• Girls of Summer (1956)
• Wildcat (1960), which starred the famous actress Lucille Ball
• The Happy Time (1968), which was nominated for a Tony Award

Nash also wrote several novels, such as East Wind, Rain, Radiance, and The Last Magic. He even wrote a play called Fire! and a novel called Winter Blood under a different name, John Roc.

Personal Life

N. Richard Nash was married three times and had three children. He had a son named Christopher with his first wife, Helena Taylor. Later, he married Katherine Copeland and had two daughters, Jennifer and Amanda.

Death

N. Richard Nash passed away in Manhattan, New York, on December 11, 2000. He was 87 years old.

Works by N. Richard Nash

Nonfiction Books

• The Wounds of Sparta
• The Athenian Spirit

Plays

See the Jaguar performed by the Maribor Slovene National Theatre in 1964

• The Second Best Bed (1946)
• See the Jaguar (1952)
• The Rainmaker (1954)
• Handful of Fire (1958)
• Girls of Summer (1956)
• Wildcat (1960)
• 110 in the Shade (1963)
• The Happy Time (1968)
• Saravà (1979)
• Echoes (1972)
• Fire! (as John Roc)

Screenplays

• Nora Prentiss (1947)
• Sainted Sisters (1948)
• Dear Wife (1949)
• The Vicious Years (1950)
• Mara Maru (1952)
• The Joker (1954)
• Top of the World (1955)
• Helen of Troy (1956)
• Porgy and Bess (1959)
• One Summer Love (1976)
• Between the Darkness and the Dawn (1985)
• The Touch
• The Young and Fair

Novels

• Cry Macho (1975)
• East Wind, Rain
• Radiance
• The Last Magic
• Winter Blood (as John Roc)
• Aphrodite's Cave
• Behold the Man
• The Wildwood (2000)

Poetry

• Absalom