(Rolla) Lynn Riggs

Bio

(1899-1954) Poet and dramatist, playwright. The son of a cattleman, he early became familiar with life on the range and the cowboy idiom used so effectively in several of his plays. In his second year as a student at the University of Oklahoma (1920-23) he taught courses in freshman English. His first play, a farce, had amateur production in 1921. A collection of poems, first published in the “Nation and Poetry,” appeared in 1930, entitled “The Iron Dish.” After several unsuccessful plays and a year in Paris on a Guggenheim Fellowship, his first commercially successful play, “Green Grow the Lilacs,” was produced in New York in 1931 by the Theatre Guild; the musical comedy “Oklahoma!” (1943) was based on it. His other plays include “Roadside” (1930), “Russet Mantle” (1936), and “The Cream in the Well” (1941). Entering the army in 1942, he served for a year. Western Reserve University in 1951 awarded him the honorary degree of Litt.D. Foremost Native American playwright. Lived and wrote many of his plays in New York City.