SOURCE: “Alfred Neumann's and Erwin Piscator's Dramatization of Tolstoy's War and Peace and the Role of Theater as a Contribution to America's War Efforts,” in Exile and Enlightenment, Uwe Faulhaber, Jerry Glenn, Edward P. Harris, Hans-Georg Richert eds., Wayne State University Press, 1987, pp. 265-272.

In the following essay, Probst chronicles the collaboration of Neumann and Piscator on the dramatization of Tolstoy's novel War and Peace.

It is generally known that Erwin Piscator came to the United States upon the invitation of Broadway producer Gilbert Miller to direct his and Alfred Neumann's dramatization of Tolstoy's War and Peace. When Miller, who had taken an option on the play after reading only a rough English translation of the original, threatened to drop the project because he did not like the finished script, particularly the second and third acts, Piscator began to look for help. One of the men he thought...