Zoë Akins was born in Humansville, Missouri. Raised in a well-to-do and strongly political Republican family, she fell in love with the stage after seeing productions of touring companies at various St. Louis theaters. She wrote her first play at the age of twelve, and her early poetry was published in William Marion Reedy's St. Louis Mirror, a journal that had earlier recognized the talents of Fannie Hurst, Sara Teasdale, and Edgar Lee Masters. Her first professional work for the stage was a three-act comedy titled Papa. It was performed with moderate success in many cities throughout the United States, but ran for only twelve performances when finally produced at the Little Theatre in New York, on 10 April 1919. The Magical City, written after Papa, was her first play to be produced in New York. A one-act melodrama in verse, it was performed by the Washington Square Players...