Howard, Bronson, 1842–1908, American dramatist, b. Detroit. His plays are important in the development of American drama. He was a newspaper reporter in New York until the success of his first play, Saratoga, a farcical comedy produced in 1870. He wrote 12 subsequent plays, including Young Mrs. Winthrop (1882), one of the first American dramas of social criticism; The Henrietta (1887), a satire on business practice; and by far his most popular play, Shenandoah (1888), a Civil War drama, first unsuccessfully produced but revived the following year with great success.
See his collected plays (ed. by A. G. Halline, 1941).
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