Please join The Department of English in celebrating Prof. Bruce Graver’s Book Launch: Peggy Webling and the Story behind Frankenstein The Making of a Hollywood Monster
Wednesday, October 30, 2024 at 5:00pm
Ruane Great Room
The missing link between Mary Shelley’s novel and the iconic Karloff film is PEGGY WEBLING AND THE STORY BEHIND FRANKENSTEIN! It tells how Peggy Webling, a British novelist and playwright, came to write the stage play of Frankenstein, based on “Mrs. Shelley’s well-known book.” You’ll learn about her life before and after she wrote Frankenstein, how the play was written and produced, and its sale to Hollywood. You’ll also find out how her conception of Frankenstein contrasts with earlier stage and screen versions, as well as how her version of the Frankenstein story influenced the 1931 Universal film starring Boris Karloff.
This story has never been told before.
Why? Until now, no one has had all the information necessary to stitch the entire history of Webling’s Frankenstein together. Using a private family archive containing playscripts, letters and an unpublished literary memoir, Dorian Gieseler Greenbaum and Bruce Graver have, for the first time, assembled the complete chronicle of Peggy Webling’s Frankenstein and its journey to Hollywood.
