Norman Corwin Biography Quotes 1 Report mistakes

Early Life and Beginnings
Norman Corwin was born in 1910 in the United States and grew up attuned to language, newspapers, and the civic pulse that would later animate his dramas. Before he was known to listeners nationwide, he learned the craft of concise, vivid storytelling as a young journalist, notably at the Springfield Republican in Massachusetts. Reporting honed his ear for real voices and sharpened his sense of proportion, qualities that would distinguish his later work. Moving into radio during the 1930s, he found a medium whose intimacy and reach matched his ambitions. In New York he assembled and hosted a literary program that paired poetry, commentary, and music, a format that showcased his gift for melding reportage with lyricism and that alerted network executives to his range.

Breakthrough at CBS
Recruited to CBS, Corwin became one of the distinctive voices of the Columbia Workshop, the network's renowned laboratory for new forms. He quickly earned national attention with original plays and verse dramas that were fearless about experimenting with sound, cadence, and structure. Backed by a company of engineers, actors, and musicians, and supported by a culture that prized innovation under figures such as William S. Paley, he built a body of work that was both topical and timeless. His series 26 by Corwin demonstrated his astonishing pace and variety, with a new play each week. Collaborations with composer Bernard Herrmann, whose scores could be spare or symphonic, deepened the expressiveness of his productions. The result was a new kind of American radio: intimate, ambitious, and literary.

Wartime Broadcasts and National Moments
As the United States confronted war, Corwin's work expanded from inventive storytelling to civic ritual. We Hold These Truths, written for the 150th anniversary of the Bill of Rights in 1941, aired only days after Pearl Harbor and reached an enormous audience across the country. The broadcast emphasized the resilience of democratic values, and it concluded with a message from President Franklin D. Roosevelt, binding artistic expression to national purpose without sacrificing complexity or compassion.

On V-E Day in 1945, Corwin wrote and produced On a Note of Triumph, a panoramic testament marked by moral clarity and unflinching attention to the costs of war. Voiced by actor Martin Gabel and propelled by Bernard Herrmann's music, the program captured celebration, grief, and responsibility in a single hour, and it instantly became a landmark of American radio. Earlier, he had proved that social satire could flourish on the airwaves with The Plot to Overthrow Christmas, a rhymed comedy that revealed his deft touch with humor and meter.

Style and Craft
Corwin's signature was a fusion of journalism and poetry: a montage of testimonies, choruses, and carefully weighted silences that treated radio as a world of its own rather than a substitute for the stage. He believed sound could carry intellect and emotion with equal power. His scripts defended civil liberties, railed against totalitarianism, and argued for human dignity. At CBS he worked in an ecosystem that included colleagues such as Edward R. Murrow and Orson Welles, figures whose presence underscored the network's belief that radio could be both art and public service.

After the War: Film, Television, and Print
When the center of mass in American entertainment shifted from radio, Corwin adapted without abandoning his voice. He wrote for the screen and for television, and he published collections that preserved his broadcasts in print. Among his film credits was the screenplay for Lust for Life, the biographical drama about Vincent van Gogh, which carried over his interest in the struggles of the creative spirit. Across mediums, he retained the cadence and conscience that had defined his radio work.

Teacher and Mentor
Corwin eventually moved into university teaching, joining the faculty at the University of Southern California, where he taught writing and the history of broadcasting. In classrooms and workshops he transmitted not only technique but also an ethic: curiosity about people, respect for facts, and faith that well-chosen words can do public good. Writers and producers across generations sought his counsel. Ray Bradbury, among others, praised Corwin's influence, recognizing in his work a model of imagination anchored by moral seriousness.

Recognition
The honors that followed were a measure of his impact rather than its motive. Corwin received the National Medal of Arts, an acknowledgment that his achievements transcended a single medium, and his landmark broadcasts earned Peabody recognition. He was celebrated by organizations devoted to radio history and free expression, and he was the subject of retrospectives that placed him in the first rank of American dramatists of the microphone.

Later Years and Legacy
Corwin remained active well into advanced age, living in Los Angeles, revisiting classic scripts, and creating new programs for public radio that affirmed his continuing command of the form. He lectured widely, testified to the possibilities of sound in the digital era, and offered generous guidance to younger practitioners of audio storytelling. Despite the transformations of technology, he never abandoned his conviction that the human voice, properly used, can move a nation.

He died in 2011, leaving a legacy that is both tangible and atmospheric: scripts, recordings, and a set of standards for public art. Admirers have called him the poet laureate of radio, a phrase that captures the singularity of a writer who used the microphone as both lyre and lantern. His collaborations with Bernard Herrmann, his presence at CBS during the overlapping eras of William S. Paley, Edward R. Murrow, and Orson Welles, and his ability to lend words to moments when millions listened together, fixed his place in cultural memory. At once celebrant and critic of his country, he showed how a democratic art can speak in chorus without losing the integrity of individual voices.

Our collection contains 1 quotes who is written by Norman, under the main topics: Freedom.

• 1944 More by Corwin (Collection of Radio Plays)
• 1942 Thirteen by Corwin (Collection of Radio Plays)
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• 1938 The Plot to Overthrow Christmas (Radio Play)