Arthur Wing Pinero

Arthur Wing Pinero (1855-1934), British author of popular farces and social dramas, born in London. As a young man he studied law, but at the age of 19 he became an actor; he continued in that profession until 1882. Pinero began his career as dramatist with the farcical comedy £200 a Year (1877); he received wide acclaim with The Money Spinner (1881) and after 1882 devoted himself to writing plays. Pinero was a prolific writer of farces and comedies, but he also wrote melodramas dealing with ethical and social problems; the latter were characteristic of the movement in Victorian England away from plays intended merely to entertain toward those dealing seriously with life. Among Pinero's plays that are still performed are The Second Mrs. Tanqueray (1893), the best known of his plays and the first to win recognition outside England; Trelawney of the “Wells” (1898), about life in a theatrical company; and the farces The Magistrate (1885) and Dandy Dick (1887). Pinero was knighted in 1909.