Hopwood Room & Awards

Painting of Avery Hopwood (1915) by Florine Stettheimer, on display in the Hopwood Room in Angell Hall. Photo by Angelé Anderfuren.

Comedic playwright Avery Hopwood's UM legacy

by Angelé Anderfuren

The Hopwood Room is dedicated to the pursuit and appreciation of writing, in all genres. The wooden bookcase-covered room on the first floor of Angell Hall honors UM alumnus Avery Hopwood. It, along with the annual writing awards, are named after the writer and his mother Jule.

"In 1920, Avery Hopwood was America's most successful playwright, achieving the distinction of having four concurrent hits on the Broadway stage" (Sharrar). In a 1928 article about his death published in The New York Times, he was noted as a "prolific farce writer" (The Associated Press). His plays included "The Gold Diggers," "Fair and Warmer," "Ladies Night," and "The Bat," which he co-authored with mystery writer Mary Roberts Rinehart; many of which were also made into films (Beaver).

Avery also wrote The Great Bordello, a novel about the world of theatre, edited posthumously by Jack Sharrar. The book was once thought lost or destroyed, according to the Sharrar's afterword in the novel. However, Sharrar found it in 1982 while doing research for his book Avery Hopwood, His Life and Plays. It was later published in 2011, nearly a century after it was written.

In her will, Jule Hopwood wrote that the prizes should "be allowed the widest possible latitude, and that the new, the unusual, and the radical shall be especially encouraged" ("Avery and Jule Hopwood"). This reflected Hopwood's own work, which was risque for it's time. "His Prohibition-era plays of flappers, bathtub gin, and jazz were iconic for his age, and his own life was reflected in aspects of his plays. He was a heavy drug and alcohol user, and he kept his homosexuality tightly concealed" (Beaver).

Avery was born in Cleveland, Ohio in May 1882. He died in July 1928 "while bathing in the surf" in the French Riviera, off Juan-les-Pins, France, according to a Time Magazine article from August that year ("Avery and Jule Hopwood"). The circumstances of his death were mysterious, though his official cause of death was listed as drowning (Beaver). Jule Hopwood died shortly after her son, which triggered the gift to UM in their honor ("Avery and Jule Hopwood").

The Hopwood Awards have been supporting creative writers for almost a century. Begining in 1931, awards have been given out in many geres from drama to novels to poety and more. Among the more than three thousand writers bestowed a now prestigious Hopwood prize are playwright Arthur Miller, screenwriter-director Lawrence Kasdan, novelist Celeste Ng, and mystery writer Steve Hamilton. All winners of Hopwwod prizes are UM students, either pursuing undergraduate or graduate degrees.

Read more about the awards, the room, the program and the man here.

Works Cited

"Avery and Jule Hopwood." University of Michigan, College of LSA, Hopwoord Program. Retrieved 14 September 2023. https://lsa.umich.edu/hopwood/about-us/avery-and-jule-hopwood.html

Beaver, Jim. "Avery Hopwood: Biography." The Internet Movie Database. Retrieved 14 September 2023. https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0394479/bio/?ref_=nm_ov_bio_sm

Delblanco, Nicholas. "Inviting a Toast of Broadway Past ro Visit the Present." 15 Feb 1998. The New York Times. Retrieved 14 September 2023. https://lsa.umich.edu/content/dam/hopwood-assets/documents/Nicholas%20Delbanco%20NYT%20article.pdf

"Hopwood Program." University of Michigan, College of LSA, Hopwoord Program. Retrieved 14 September 2023. https://lsa.umich.edu/hopwood/about-us.html

Sharrar, Jack. "Avery Hopwood: His Life and Plays." University of Michigan Press. Retrieved 14 September 2023. https://press.umich.edu/Books/A/Avery-Hopwood

The Associated Press. "Avery Hopwood Dies in the Sea." 2 July 1928. The New York Times. Retrieved 14 September 2023. https://www.nytimes.com/1928/07/02/archives/avery-hopwood-dies-in-the-sea-american-dramatist-stricken-while-bat.html

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