Maxwell Anderson (1888-1959), a playwright, author, poet, journalist and lyricist, was brought up in Jamestown, North Dakota. Many of Anderson's plays focused on liberty and justice; he was fired from several positions (once as a high school teacher in ND for making pacifist statements).

Among Anderson's familiar works are Anne of the Thousand Days about Anne Boleyn and Henry VIII, The Private Lives of Elizabeth and Essex, Valley Forge about George Washington, and a collaboration with his friend composer Kurt Weill called Knickerbocker Holiday inspired by Washington Irving's stories.
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