{{Short description|American-born British writer (1874–1945)}} {{Use dmy dates|date=April 2022}} {{Infobox person | name = Edward Knoblock | image = Edward Knoblock -1.jpg | image_size = | caption = Captain Edward Knoblock ({{circa}} 1918) | birth_name = Edward Gustavus Knoblauch | birth_date = {{birth date|1874|4|7|mf=y}} | birth_place = New York City, New York, US | death_date = {{death date and age|1945|7|19|1874|4|7|mf=y}} | death_place = London, England | occupation = Playwright and novelist | years_active = | spouse = }} '''Edward Knoblock''' (born '''Edward Gustavus Knoblauch'''; 7 April 1874 – 19 July 1945) was a playwright and novelist, originally American and later a naturalised British citizen. He wrote numerous plays, often at the rate of two or three a year, of which the most successful were ''Kismet'' (1911) and ''Milestones'' (1912, co-written with Arnold Bennett). Many of his plays were collaborations, with, among others, Vicki Baum, Beverley Nichols, J. B. Priestley and Vita Sackville-West.
After serving in the British armed forces during the First World War, he combined his theatrical career with work on films, both in Hollywood and the UK. He lived most of his adult life in London, where he died in 1945 at the age of 71.
==Life and career== ===Early years=== Knoblock was born in New York City, the second of the seven children of Carl (Charles) Eduard Knoblauch and his wife, Gertrud, ''née'' Wiebe. Knoblock's father was a successful stockbroker with a seat on the New York Stock Exchange. In 1880 Knoblock's mother died suddenly. His father remarried in 1885 but died of acute appendicitis in 1886. Knoblock's American-born stepmother, who had attended music conservatory in Leipzig, took the children to Germany, where his older brother was already in school and where the cost of living was lower. Knoblock spent two years at school in Berlin. A legacy from Charles Knoblauch's maternal uncle in 1890 enabled the family to return to New York, and in 1892 Knoblock went to Harvard, graduating in 1896. See Knoblauch, "Nachrichten aus Manhattan," p. 370–381.<ref name=times>" Obituary: Mr E. Knoblock", ''The Times'', 20 July 1945, p. 7</ref> Thereafter he spent much of his life in Europe, first in Paris and from 1897 in London.<ref name=times/>
Determined to pursue a theatrical career, Knoblock, in the words of ''The Times'', "settled down to 14 years of hard and unremunerative work, gaining experience of the theatre by acting as well as by writing, adapting and translating plays".<ref name=times/> He toured with William Greet's company in ''The Dovecot'', an adaptation of a French comedy (1898);<ref name=who/> he managed the Avenue Theatre (also 1898);<ref>"Avenue Theatre", ''The Globe'', 26 April 1898, p. 4</ref> he appeared at the Royalty Theatre in November 1899 as Jo in the premiere of Shaw's ''You Never Can Tell'',<ref name=who>Parker, pp. 465–466</ref> and was in the cast at the Adelphi Theatre in Laurence Irving's ''Bonnie Dundee'' (1900).<ref name=who/> His first dramatic work to be staged was a collaboration with Lawrence Sterner, a revised version of the latter's 1895 play ''The Club Baby'', produced at the Avenue in May 1898,<ref>"London Theatres", ''The Stage'', 5 May 1898, p. 15</ref> running for 39 performances.<ref>Wearing, p. 377</ref>
===Early 20th century=== Between the turn of the century and his breakthrough success in 1911 Knoblock wrote ''The Partikler Pet'' (an adaptation of a play by Max Maurey), 1905; ''The Shulamite'', adapted from Alice and Claude Askew's novel, 1906; ''The Cottage in the Air'', adapted from ''Princess Priscilla's Fortnight'', 1909; ''Sister Beatrice,'' (a translation of Maurice Maeterlinck's play), 1910; and ''The Faun'' 1911.<ref name=who/> During part of this period he held the post of reader of plays at the Kingsway Theatre, London, where Lena Ashwell and Norman McKinnel were in management together. Knoblock claimed that in eighteen months he read five thousand plays, "and neither lost nor held up a single one of them".<ref name=times/> In 1909 he returned to Paris, from where he made long visits to Tunis and Kairouan, absorbing the local colour and atmosphere that inspired him to write the play ''Kismet''.<ref name=times/> It was taken up by Oscar Asche and presented at the Garrick Theatre in 1911, running for 328 performances in its first production,<ref>Gaye, p. 1533</ref> and a further 222 in its first revival, in 1914.<ref>Parker, p. 1144</ref> [[File:Bennett-Knoblock-Milestones-1912.jpg|thumb|upright=1.5|{{center|''Milestones'', 1912}}|alt=stage scene in 1885 costumes with young woman earnestly addressing a stern father]]
Knoblock's next play was ''Milestones'' (1912), co-written with Arnold Bennett. Bennett had tried his hand as a dramatist before, with mixed success, but the combination of his gifts as a story-teller and Knoblock's painstakingly acquired craftsmanship produced a critical and box-office success that made them both a great deal of money.<ref name=odnb>Lucas, John. [https://www.oxforddnb.com/view/10.1093/ref:odnb/9780198614128.001.0001/odnb-9780198614128-e-30708 "Bennett, (Enoch) Arnold (1867–1931), writer"], ''Oxford Dictionary of National Biography'', Oxford University Press, 2004. Retrieved 30 March 2021 {{ODNBsub}}</ref><ref>"Bennett-Knoblauch Play a Big Success", ''The New York Times'', 6 March 1912, p. 4; "Royalty Theatre", ''The Times'', 6 March 1912; "Drama", ''The Athenaeum'', 9 March 1912, p. 291; Milne, A. A. "At the Play", ''Punch'', 27 March 1912, p. 238; and "Plays of the Month", ''The English Review'', April 1912, p. 155–157</ref> It played at the Royalty for more than 600 performances and ran for more than 200 on Broadway.<ref>"Drama", ''The Athenaeum'', 9 March 1912, p. 291; Gaye, p. 1535; and [https://www.ibdb.com/broadway-production/milestones-7497 "Milestones"], Internet Broadway Database. Retrieved 30 March 2021</ref> Laurence Irving is quoted in the ''Oxford Dictionary of National Biography'' as saying that Knoblock taught Bennett, and later J. B. Priestley and others "the rudiments of stage carpentry".<ref name=odnb/> Between the premiere of ''Milestones'' and the First World War Knoblock had three more plays presented in London: ''Discovering America'', (1912); ''The Headmaster'' (with Wilfred Coleby, 1913); and ''My Lady's Dress'' (1914).<ref name=who/>
===First World War and 1920s=== In August 1914 Knoblock was determined to join the British Army. His friend the novelist Compton Mackenzie held a senior post in military intelligence and secured him a commission. Knoblock served as a captain in the Mediterranean, the Balkans and Greece. In July 1916 he became a naturalised British citizen and the following month he anglicised the spelling of his surname, changing it from Knoblauch to Knoblock.<ref name=odnb/> [[File:Fairbanks & Pickford with Edw. Knobloch LCCN2014716896 (cropped).jpg|upright=1.5|thumb|Knoblock, right, with Douglas Fairbanks and Mary Pickford in 1924|left|alt=Three white people, man, woman, man wearing hats and thick coats on the deck of a ship]] During the war years Knoblock continued to write plays: ''England Expects '' (with Seymour Hicks, 1914); ''Hail''; ''Marie-Odile''; ''The Way to Win''; ''A War Committee''; ''How to Get On''; ''Paganini'' and ''Mouse'' (all 1915); ''The Hawk '' (from the French) and ''Home on Leave'' (both 1916); and ''Tiger! Tiger!'' (1918).<ref name=who/> In 1917 he bought and subsequently restored the Beach House, a Regency building in Worthing, Sussex.<ref name=odnb/> His plays of the immediate post-war years were ''Our Peg'' (1919); ''Mumsie'', ''Cherry'', and ''One'' (all 1920).
After the war Knoblock divided his time between London and Hollywood, where he wrote for the film company of Douglas Fairbanks and Mary Pickford. He adapted ''The Three Musketeers'' in 1921, wrote the film ''Rosita'' for Pickford (1923), and was a consultant for Fairbanks's 1922 ''Robin Hood''<ref>[https://web.archive.org/web/20180322231744/http://www.bfi.org.uk/films-tv-people/4ce2b6b47c84a "Robin Hood (1922)]", British Film Institute. Retrieved 30 March 2021</ref> and 1924 ''The Thief of Baghdad''. According to his biographer Eric Salmon he was associated with several other film adaptations during the 1920s and 1930s, although he was evidently not involved with the scripting of any of the 1914, 1920 or 1930 film versions of ''Kismet''.<ref name=odnb/><ref>[https://www2.bfi.org.uk/films-tv-people/4ce2b734b2222 "Kismet (1914)"]{{dead link|date=October 2023|bot=medic}}{{cbignore|bot=medic}}, British Film Institute. Retrieved 30 March 2021</ref>
Knoblock had two more collaborations with Bennett: ''London Life'', an original play (1924) and ''Mr Prohack'' (1927), a dramatisation of Bennett's 1922 novel of the same name.<ref name=www>Parker, Gaye and Herbert, p. 1348</ref> His other plays of the 1920s were ''Simon; Called Peter'' (with J. E. Goodman, from the novel, 1924); ''Speakeasy '' (with George Rosener, 1927); and ''The Mulberry Bush'' (1927).<ref name=www/> At the end of the decade he published his first novel, ''The Ant Heap'' (1929).<ref name=odnb/>
===Later years=== In the 1930s Knoblock collaborated on adaptations of novels with Vicki Baum (''Grand Hotel'', 1931), Priestley (''The Good Companions'', 1931), Beverley Nichols (''Evensong'', 1932) and Vita Sackville-West (''The Edwardians'', 1934).<ref name=www/><ref>"The Edwardians", ''The Manchester Guardian'', 17 September 1934, p. 12</ref> His other plays from the decade were ''Hatter's Castle'' (from A. J. Cronin's novel, 1932) and ''If a Body'' (with Rosener, 1935), an experimental Broadway piece in which the six scenes of the play were set on platforms and moved into place in full view of the audience.<ref>"Curtain Calls", ''Oakland Tribune'', 14 May 1935, p. D 27</ref>
For the cinema, Knoblock helped Elinor Glyn with the screenplay for her 1930 film ''Knowing Men'',<ref>[https://web.archive.org/web/20180608025207/http://www.bfi.org.uk/films-tv-people/4ce2b6be3c51e "Knowing Men"], British Film Institute. Retrieved 30 March 2021</ref> and was among the screenwriters for ''Men of Steel'' (1933), ''Chu Chin Chow'', ''Evensong'' and ''Red Wagon'' (all 1934), ''The Amateur Gentleman'' (1936), ''Moonlight Sonata'' (1937) and ''An Englishman's Home'' (1939).<ref>[https://web.archive.org/web/20160702201847/http://www.bfi.org.uk/films-tv-people/4ce2ba95da55a "Edward Knoblock"], British Film Institute. Retrieved 30 March 2021</ref>
In the 1930s and early 1940s Knoblock published three more novels: ''The Man with Two Mirrors'' (1931), ''The Love Lady'' (1933), and ''Inexperience'' (1941). In 1939 he published an autobiography, ''Round the Room''.<ref name=odnb/>
Knoblock was the subject of one of the most repeated stories involving the gaffe-prone actor John Gielgud, which Gielgud confessed was true. While the two were lunching together at The Ivy a man passed their table, and Gielgud said, "Thank God he didn't stop, he's a bigger bore than Eddie Knoblock – oh, not you, Eddie!" Asked how Knoblock reacted, Gielgud replied, "He just looked slightly puzzled, and went on boring."<ref>Croall, p. 44</ref>
Knoblock died on 19 July 1945 aged 71, at the London home of his sister, the sculptor Gertrude Knoblauch.<ref name=odnb/>
==References== {{reflist }}
==Sources== * {{cite book |editor-last=Croall |editor-first=Jonathan |year=2013 |title=Gielgoodies – The Wit and Wisdom and Gaffes of John Gielgud |location=London |publisher=Oberon Books |isbn=978-1783190072}} * {{cite book|last= Gaye|first=Freda |year= 1967|title=Who's Who in the Theatre |edition=fourteenth|location=London |publisher=Sir Isaac Pitman and Sons |oclc=5997224 }} * {{cite book|last=Knoblauch |first=Susanne C. |year=2020 |title=Nachrichen aus Manhattan |location=Münster|publisher=LIT Verlag| isbn=978-3-643-25001-8}} * {{cite book | last= Parker | first= John| year=1922 | title= Who's Who in the Theatre | location=London |edition=fourth| publisher=Sir Isaac Pitman and Sons | oclc=473894893}} * {{cite book|last=Parker| first= John|author2=Freda Gaye|author3=Ian Herbert |year= 1978|title=Who Was Who in the Theatre |location= Detroit|publisher= Gale Research |oclc=310466458}} * {{cite book | last= Wearing | first= J. P. | title= The London Stage 1890–1899: A Calendar of Productions, Performers, and Personnel| year= 2013| location= Lanham| publisher= Scarecrow Press| isbn=978-0-81-089281-1 }}
==External links== {{commons category|Edward Knoblock}} *{{IMDb name|0461241|Edward Knoblock}} *{{IBDB name|5288}} *[https://web.archive.org/web/20090806090739/https://library.rice.edu/collections/WRC/finding-aids/manuscripts/0324 Guide to the Edward Knoblock Papers at Rice University] *[https://nrs.harvard.edu/urn-3:FHCL.Hough:hou00901 Guide to Edward Knoblock Papers at Houghton Library, Harvard College] * {{LCAuth|n50042371|Edward Knoblock|62|ue}} *[https://www.greatwartheatre.org.uk/db/person/38/ Plays by Edward Knoblock on Great War Theatre]
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Knoblock, Edward}} Category:1874 births Category:1945 deaths Category:The Harvard Lampoon alumni Category:Harvard College alumni Category:American people of German descent Category:American emigrants to England Category:Naturalised citizens of the United Kingdom Category:Writers from New York City Category:British dramatists and playwrights Category:British male screenwriters Category:English people of German descent Category:British Army personnel of World War I Category:British Army General List officers Category:American male screenwriters Category:British male dramatists and playwrights Category:Screenwriters from New York (state) Category:20th-century American male writers Category:20th-century American screenwriters Category:20th-century British screenwriters Category:20th-century British male writers Category:Military personnel from New York City