Ronald Gow
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Ronald Gow (November 1, 1897 – April 27, 1993) was an English dramatist, best known for Love on the Dole (1934).
Born in Heaton Moor, Stockport, the son of a bank manager, Gow trained as a chemist and for many years taught at Altrincham Grammar School. Writing occupied his spare time: he wrote plays for the BBC, and with his pupils made several popular educational silent films. At the age of 35 he found success in London with Gallow's Glorious (1933), a play about the American slavery abolitionist John Brown.
In 1934 he wrote Love on the Dole, based on Walter Greenwood's novel about unemployment in Salford during the Great Depression – the play was a huge success. In 1936 Gow married Wendy Hiller, the leading lady. He continued writing plays into his eighties, providing material for his wife in adaptations of Tess of the D'Urbervilles (1946) and Ann Veronica (1949). His other adaptations include Vita Sackville-West's The Edwardians and A Boston Story (1966), based on Henry James' Watch and Ward.
