Generally known as a novelist who deftly illustrated American life and culture in her popular fiction, Edna Ferber was always drawn to the stage. As a child she wanted to act, but she later realized that her talents were in the written word and achieved her dreams of a life in the theater by writing for the stage. Her most successful plays were written in collaboration with the "Great Collaborator" George S. Kaufman, with whom she worked on six successful Broadway plays. Ferber brought to her dramatic works the ability to astutely and accurately depict her subjects with a lovingly critical eye, giving the stage unforgettable characters whom she never tired of seeing revived.

Edna Ferber was born on 15 August 1885 in Kalamazoo, Michigan, to Jacob Charles and Julia Neumann Ferber. Jacob Ferber had immigrated to America from Oylso, Hungary, when he was seventeen and was soon joined by...