N. Richard Nash

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N. Richard Nash (June 8, 1913 - December 11, 2000) was a writer and dramatist best known for writing Broadway shows, including The Rainmaker.

Nash was born Nathan Richard Nusbaum in Philadelphia, the son of S. L. Nusbaum, a bookbinder, and Jenny Singer Nusbaum. He worked as a ten dollar per match boxer and graduated from South Philadelphia high school in 1930 before entering the University of Pennsylvania to study English and philosophy. He published two books on philosophy, The Athenian Spirit and The Wounds of Sparta.

Nash wrote his first play, Parting at Imsdorf, in 1940, which won the Maxwell Anderson Verse Drama Award. Next, he penned the Shakespearian-themed comedy The Second Best Bed, produced on Broadway in 1946. The highly acclaimed drama lead to him writing more shows, including The Young and Fair (1948), See the Jaguar (1952, for which he won the International Drama Award in Cannes and the Prague Award), and The Rainmaker (1954, starring Geraldine Page; revived in 1999), which was translated to over 40 languages and made into a 1956 Hollywood film starring Burt Lancaster and Katharine Hepburn, and also made into a 1982 TV production. The story was also made into a Broadway musical, 110 in the Shade.

Nash went on to write a number of screenplays, novels and more plays, including the screenplays for the 1947 Ann Sheridan film noir, Nora Prentiss, The Sainted Sisters (1948), Dear Wife (1949), Mara Maru (1952), Helen of Troy (1956), Porgy and Bess (1959), and later Dragonfly (1976, reissued as One Summer Love) and Between the Darkness and the Dawn (1985). Other Broadway shows include Girls of Summer (1956), Handful of Fire (1958), Wildcat (1960, starring Lucille Ball), 110 in the Shade (1963; revived in 2007), The Happy Time (1968, nominated for the Tony Award for Best Musical), and Saravà (1979). Nash's novels include East Wind, Rain, "Radiance", "The Last Magic", and an unpublished novel,The Wildwood. Under the pseudonym, John Roc, he also wrote a play, "Fire!" and a novel, "Winter Blood".