Gilbert Seldes

Gilbert Vivian Seldes was an American journalist, music and drama critic, author and playwright. A native of Alliance, New Jersey, and a Harvard graduate, Seldes is best remembered as the author of "The Seven Lively Arts" (1924). While at Harvard, his roommate, Irving Pichel, wagered one dollar that he could memorize the full text of Shakespeare's "The Merchant of Venice" faster than Seldes could. Pichel managed the feat in seven days, two days longer than it had taken Seldes. As a young man, Seldes worked as a critic, columnist and a war correspondent for papers in Philadelphia and New York. He was also remembered for his books "The Public Arts" and "The Great Audience" and for his translation of Aristophanes' "Lysistrata". Seldes was additionally the author of several murder mysteries under the pen name Foster James. His book "The Seven Lively Arts" would the inspire a 1953 radio show by the same name (that he hosted) and the television series The Seven Lively Arts (1957). Later in life he worked as a television director at CBS. In 1959 he was appointed the first director of the University of Pennsylvania's Annenberg School of Communication. Seldes would retire in 1963. Gilbert Vivian Seldes passed away in Manhattan at the age of 77. He was survived by a daughter and a son. His wife, Alice Hall, died in 1954 after 30 years of marriage.