History of Western Theatre: 17th Century to Now/Alphabetical list of playwrights (died 1855-1955)

This list of recent authors has been added for the benefit of readers in jurisdictions where the copyright expires a fixed period after the authors life, rather than date of publication or renewal.

Annotated by year of death


 * Ade, George 1944
 * Afford, Malcolm 1954
 * Afinogenov, Alexander 1941
 * Anderson, Arthur 1942
 * Andreyev, Leonid 1919
 * Arlt, Roberto
 * Arniches, Carlos 1943
 * Artaud, Antonin 1948
 * Arthur, Joseph 1906
 * Asche, Oscar 1936


 * Bacon, Frank 1922
 * Baker, George Melville 1890
 * Balderston, John L. 1954
 * Bangs, John Kendrick 1922
 * Barrie, James Murray 1937
 * Barry, Phillip 1949
 * Baring, Maurice 1945
 * Beach, Rex 1949
 * Beith, John Hay 1952
 * Belasco, David 1930
 * Bennett, Arnold 1931
 * Benelli, Sam 1949
 * Besier, Rudolf 1942
 * Binyon, Laurence 1943
 * Birinski, Leo 1951
 * Bjørnson, Bjørnstjerne 1910
 * Black, Stephen 1931
 * Brown, Abbie Farwell 1927
 * Bulgakov, Mikhail 1940
 * Burnard, Francis Cowley 1917
 * Burrill, Mary P. 1946
 * Byron, Henry James 1884


 * Calderon, George 1915
 * Caine, Sir Hall 1931
 * Čapek, Karel 1938
 * Chekov, Anton 1904
 * Collette 1953
 * Collison, Wilson 1941
 * Colton, John 1946
 * Cowl, Jane 1950


 * Davis, Richard Harding 1916
 * de Lorde, André 1942
 * Dickens, Charles 1880
 * Dixon, Thomas, Jr. 1946
 * Dowson, Ernest 1900
 * Drinkwater, John 1937
 * Drury, William Price 1948
 * Du Maurier, Guy 1915
 * Duprez, Fred 1938


 * Epstein, Philip G. 1952
 * Ewing, Juliana Horatia 1885


 * Feydeau, Georges 1921
 * Fitch, Clyde 1909
 * Flecker, James Elroy 1915
 * Fort, Garrett 1945
 * Frank, Bruno 1945
 * Fulton, Maude 1950


 * Gadkari, Ram Ganesh 1919
 * Galsworthy, John 1933
 * Gates, Eleanor 1950
 * Gilbert, W. S. 1911
 * Giraudoux, Jean 1944
 * Glaspell, Susan 1948
 * Glass, Montague 1934
 * Goddard, Charles 1951
 * Gorky, Maxim 1936
 * Granville-Barker, Harley 1946
 * Gregory, Lady Augusta 1933


 * Hackett, Walter C. 1944
 * Hasler, Karel 1941
 * Hazelton, George Cochrane 1921
 * Hauptmann, Gerhart 1946
 * Hawtrey, Charles 1923
 * Herne, James A.1901
 * Hoffe, Monckton 1951
 * Hopwood, Avery 1928
 * Howard, Sidney Coe 1939
 * Howells, William Dean 1920
 * Hughes, Hatcher 1945
 * Hunyady, Sándor 1942


 * Ibsen, Henrik 1906


 * Jackson, Frederick 1953
 * James, Henry 1916
 * Jones Henry Arthur 1929


 * Kailasam, T. P. 1946
 * Klein, Charles 1919


 * Lavedan, Henri 1940
 * Law, Arthur 1913
 * Le Pera, Alfredo 1935
 * Lewis, Sinclair 1951
 * Locke, Edward 1945
 * Lonsdale, Frederick 1954
 * Lorca, Federico García 1936


 * Magnus, Julian 1905
 * Mack, Willard 1934
 * MacSwiney, Terence 1920
 * Maeterlinck, Maurice 1949
 * Mayo, Margaret 1951
 * Mayakovsky, Vladimir 1930
 * McKinnel, Norman 1932
 * Millay, Edna St. Vincent 1950
 * Moffat, Graham 1951
 * Moore, Thomas Sturge 1944
 * Morton, Michael 1931
 * Mühsam, Erich 1934


 * Manners, J. Hartley 1928
 * Mizner, Wilson 1933


 * Oliphant, Ernest Henry Clark 1936
 * O'Riordan, Conal Holmes O'Connell 1948
 * O'Neill, Eugene 1953


 * Parker, Louis N. 1944
 * Pirandello, Luigi 1936
 * Pinero, Arthur Wing 1934
 * Prasad, Jaishankar 1937
 * Przybyszewska, Stanisława 1935


 * Raghava, Bellary 1946
 * Rostand, Edmond 1918
 * Robins, Elizabeth 1952
 * Rudd, Steele 1935


 * Sardou, Victorien 1907
 * Schnitzler, Arthur 1931
 * Shaw, George Bernard 1950
 * Shawqi, Ahmed 1932
 * Sheldon, Edward 1946
 * Shiels, George 1949
 * Sierra, Gregorio Martínez 1947
 * Steell, Willis 1942
 * Strindberg, August 1912
 * Sudermann, Hermann 1928
 * Summers, Montague 1948
 * Sutro, Alfred 1933
 * Swears, Herbert 1946
 * Swinburne, Algernon Charles1909
 * Synge, John Millington 1905


 * Thomas, Augustus 1934
 * Toller, Ernst 1939
 * Turner, Walter J. 1946
 * Tennyson, Alfred, Lord 1892
 * Thomas, Brandon1918
 * Thompson, Alexander. M 1948
 * Turgenev, Ivan 1885


 * Von Horváth, Ödön 1938


 * Walsh, William Thomas 1949
 * Walter, Eugene 1941
 * Webster, Jean 1916
 * Wedekind, Frank 1918
 * Willard, John 1942
 * Wilson, Harry Leon 1939
 * Wilde, Percival 1953


 * Yeats, W. B. 1939


 * Zangwill, Israel 1926
 * Zola, Emile 1902