William Alfred

Who was William Alfred?

William Alfred was a playwright and Professor of English literature at Harvard University.

Born in Brooklyn, New York, Alfred served in the Army tank corps in World War II, received a B.A. from Brooklyn College in 1948, and received an M.A. in English from Harvard in 1949. He earned his Ph.D. at Harvard in 1954 and that year joined its faculty, becoming a full professor in 1963.

Alfred was a specialist in early English literature. He was chairman of Harvard's Standing Committee on Dramatics for many years, and he taught a course in playwriting. His lyrical play, Hogan's Goat, about turn-of-the-century Brooklyn-Irish politics, had a long and successful off-Broadway run in 1966 and provided a breakout role for actress Faye Dunaway, who became a lifelong friend of Alfred's. Other works included Agamemnon, The Curse of an Aching Heart, Nothing Doing, and Cry for Us All, a musical adaptation of Hogan's Goat.

In 1980 he was named Abbott Lawrence Lowell Professor of the Humanities. William Alfred was the recipient of the New York Drama Desk Award and served on the poetry panels of the Pulitzer Prize and National Book Award committees.