Louis Kronenberger was born in Cincinnati, Ohio, on December 9, 1904. He spent all of his early years there, graduating from Hughes High School in 1921 and attending the University of Cincinnati for the next three years. Even as a boy his attention was directed toward two endeavors that would later occupy him professionally: writing, and the theater. At nine years of age Kronenberger put out a newsmagazine he called The Demonstrating Weekly, by thirteen he was writing “drawerfuls of verse,” and in high school he wrote poetry and stories for the school magazine. At twelve he was fortunate enough to get free tickets to all the Saturday matinees of Cincinnati's leading theater and so, either for free or as an usher, he saw many plays in the next several years.
As a college sophomore Kronenberger had his first sonnet published in a literary journal, and after his junior year he went to New York, hoping to stay and become a writer. That spring of 1924 he got a job in the accounting department of the New York Times, and shortly thereafter he began to write book reviews for that newspaper. He was also a book reviewer for Saturday Review. In June, 1926, the young man found a summer job at the publishing company of Boni and Liveright. Being a reader for the publisher of authors like Theodore Dreiser, Sherwood Anderson and Eugene O'Neill was exciting business, and Kronenberger's “summer job” turned into an extended stay. He worked for the firm until November, 1932; financial problems exacerbated by the Depression caused the company to go bankrupt early in 1933.
His work at Boni and Liveright had been valuable experience for Kronenberger. During that time he wrote his first novel, The Grand Manner (1929). And his job with Liveright's enabled him to become an editor for Alfred A. Knopf in 1933. Kronenberger worked for Knopf and continued his own writing until 1936, when he went to work for Fortune magazine.
In 1938 the writer-editor entered upon another major phase of his career--he became the theater critic for Time
magazine. He served in that capacity until 1961, and he estimated that he attended almost two thousand opening nights during that twenty-three year period. For a part of the time, 1940-1948, Kronenberger was also the drama critic for the newspaper PM.
The press of Kronenberger's double job allowed him to write only one book, Kings and Desperate Men (1941), between 1938 and 1948. After he resigned from PM he was able to devote more time to writing, and thereafter appeared The Thread of Laughter (1952), Company Manners (1954), The Republic of Letters (1955), Marlborough's Duchess (1958), and A Month of Sundays (1961). He also edited numerous books, notably a portion of the Burns Mantle series of best plays.
Concurrently with writing and play-reviewing, Kronenberger was also a teacher. Since the early 1940's he has been a faculty member or guest lecturer at several universities, including Columbia, Brandeis and Harvard. In 1953 he became a professor of theatre arts at Brandeis University, and in 1963 he was named Librarian of the University. At that time he and his wife moved to Boston.
But Kronenberger's first love is writing, which he continued to do throughout and after his stint as Librarian at Brandeis. The Cart and the Horse (1964) and The Polished Surface (1969) were followed by his memoirs, No Whippings, No Gold Watches: The Saga of a Writer and His Jobs (1970).
Mr. Kronenberger and his wife, the former Emmy L. Plaut, live in Boston.
