The University of Iowa Libraries

Maxine Finsterwald was born in Marion, Wisconsin, in 1906 and grew up in Detroit, Michigan. She was a graduate of Wellesley College and the Carnegie Institute of Technology. Finsterwald got her start writing for radio while still in Detroit. She wrote, directed, and acted in the Kaffee Klatch and wrote half-hour comedies for Playhouse of the Air. Moving to New York, she wrote for Words at War at NBC. She also wrote plays for the theater, newspaper and magazine features, and medical articles. She was published in everything from the Atlantic Monthly and Seventeen to the Medical Tribune and Radiology News. She wrote her plays using the pen name, Maxine Wood. One of her early plays, Giants in Chains, won the Otto H. Kahn prize in 1928. Another of her works, On Whitman Avenue, addressed race relations. Her works have been performed on and off Broadway as well as in regional theaters.

The papers of Maxine Finsterwald date from 1928 to 1983 and document her literary career. The papers measure 2.5 linear feet and are arranged in four sections: 1) general files; 2) published material; 3) typescripts; and 4) playbills and programs. The general files include such items as correspondence, photographs, and two scrapbooks (one devoted to her play, On Whitman Avenue and one to biographical articles, notices, programs, and reviews). The published materials series is divided into fiction and nonfiction and includes articles on medical subjects as well as short stories and plays. Her typescripts are separated into plays, radio plays, radio shows, speeches, and teleplays. There is also one entire box of playbills and programs from theater performances she attended, unrelated to her own works.

Alternate Extent Statement: Photographs in Box 1.

Access: This collection is open for research.

Use: Copyright restrictions may apply; please consult Special Collections staff for further information.

Acquisition: These papers were donated to the University of Iowa Libraries by Maxine Finsterwald in 1983.

Preferred Citation: Maxine Finsterwald Papers, The University of Iowa Libraries, Iowa City, Iowa.

Repository:	University of Iowa Special Collections
Address:	Special Collections Department University of Iowa Libraries Iowa City, IA 52242
Phone:	319-335-5921
Curator:	Greg Prickman
Email:	lib-spec@uiowa.edu
Website:	http://www.lib.uiowa.edu/spec-coll/

This collection is indexed under the following subject terms.

Personal Names:
Wood, Maxine, 1906-

Dates:
20th century
20th century

Topics:
Women authors, American
Women dramatists, American

Genre/Form of Materials:
Drafts (Documents)
Playbills
Scrapbooks

Title:
On Whitman avenue

Browse:
English & American Literature
Writers Archive at Iowa
Dramatists, Playwrights, & Scriptwriters for Television & Screen