Playwright and biographer Tad Mosel was born George Ault Mosel, Jr., on May 1, 1922, in Steubenville, Ohio, to Margaret and George Ault Mosel. With his older brother, James, he was raised in Larchmont and New Rochelle, New York. Mosel attended Mount Hermon School in Massachusetts and New Rochelle High School and knew from the age of sixteen that he wanted to write for the theatre. From 1940 to 1943, he attended Amherst College, where he majored in English and wrote his first play, THE HAPPIEST YEARS (1942). A member of the class of 1944, he left college to serve in the Army Air Forces Weather Service, both in the U.S. and the South Pacific. Mosel left the service in 1946, having earned the rank of sergeant. He returned to Amherst College, where he was president of the campus dramatic group, the Masquers, receiving his B.A. degree in 1947. Around this time, Mosel also became director of the Longmeadow Players in Springfield, Massachusetts. Determined to become a playwright, he entered Yale Drama School in 1947. Mosel left in 1949 to join the Broadway cast of the play AT WAR WITH THE ARMY by James B. Allardice, in which he played a lost private who never utters a word while he tries to find his company. He remained with the show for almost a year. Mosel had his first teleplay, "Jinxed," produced on Chevrolet Tele-Theater in 1949. In 1951, he began working to enter the M.A. degree program at Columbia University, where John Gassner was a strong influence. For his M.A. degree requirement, he wrote THE LION HUNTERS, a play rejected at first by his Columbia faculty advisor, but subsequently produced Off-Broadway at the Provincetown Playhouse in 1952. Throughout the "Golden Age of Television" in the 1950s, Mosel's plays could be seen regularly on programs featuring the best in American drama. THE DECISION OF ARROWSMITH, based on Sinclair Lewis' novel, aired on CBS Medallion Theatre in 1953 and starred Henry Fonda. Humphrey Bogart, Lauren Bacall, Henry Fonda, and Jack Klugman appeared in the PRODUCER'S SHOWCASE production on NBC. Two of his works televised on Studio One include THE FIVE-DOLLAR BILL (1957) and THE PRESENCE OF THE ENEMY (1958) with E.G. Marshall. Mosel wrote four original plays for Playhouse 90: "The Playroom" (1957) with Mildred Dunnock, Tony Randall, and Patricia Neal, IF YOU KNEW ELIZABETH (1957), THE INNOCENT SLEEP (1958) with Hope Lange and Buster Keaton, and A CORNER OF THE GARDEN (1959) with Eileen Heckart and Gary Merrill. In 1958, Fred Coe asked Mosel to adapt James Agee's novel "A Death in the Family" for the stage. ALL THE WAY HOME, Mosel's play, opened at the Belasco Theatre on November 30, 1960. Directed by Arthur Penn, the cast included Colleen Dewhurst, Arthur Hill, Lillian Gish, and Aline MacMahon. It became known as "the miracle on Forty-fourth Street" and went on to win the New York Drama Critics Circle award. In May 1961, Mosel won the Pulitzer Prize for drama and used the prize money to throw a party for the cast, crew, producers, and entire staff of the play. In 1963, he wrote the screenplay for the film version.
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