The Selected Letters of Elia Kazan

“For readers with more than a passing interest in this period of American theater and film, The Selected Letters of Elia Kazan is a real-time archive from a seminal insider.”

Director Elia Kazan’s innovations in theater and film in the mid 20th century ushered in a more naturalized acting style that changed both industries forever. He also dealt with socially conscious themes in straightforward manner. No other director was more influential or moved so fluently and successfully between Broadway and Hollywood. 

Kazan has been the subject of many biographers and late in his career, Kazan wrote A Life, his autobiography. But, in many ways, a real-time account is the most reliable record of such a giant, and in this case, controversial, figure.

Fortunately, in addition to being a seminal artist, Kazan’s prolific correspondence tracks the entirety of his career in Knopf’s The Selected Letters of Elia Kazan, epistolary communications sent by the director to colleagues, actors, movie stars, writers, and family members.

The letters are deftly chosen by editors Albert and Marlene Delvin and reveal so much about the man, his times and his art. The replies are not among these pages, but the editors fill in any specific details to contextualize between each entry. His correspondence chronicles the entirety of his career.

The director started out onstage at the group theater, getting rave acting reviews in depression era hits Waiting for Lefty and Golden Boy. Hollywood called and he played city toughs in b movies, but he uses the quick cash to reorganize and underwrite new productions at the Group Theatre, working with Cheryl Crawford and Lee Strasberg. His letters of this period clear up so much mythmaking about the intensely fractious history of the Group Theater, and vitally, the actual techniques and actual application of the famed Studio Theater “Method.”   

Meanwhile on the west coast, Kazan quickly was learning about filmmaking and immersed himself in learning the craft. In the 40s he acquires military deferments to continue working stateside even though he is fully prepared to go to Europe to fight. Meanwhile was scuttling back and forth, directing the production of Thornton Wilder’s Skin of Our Teeth, staring Tallulah Bankhead, to reset the commercial viability of the Group Theater as an Broadway entity. 

Things get complicated at home as Kazan starts a very public affair with an actress and for that and other reasons, his marriage starts to disintegrate, but he stays close to wife Molly, and they remain a close family raising two children together. In a ranting confessional letter to his wife he gives his reasons why he will always love her but wants a divorce.

One thing that comes through is Kazan’s impervious character and his uncompromising spirit and candor. No one was immune to his clear-eyed practical assessments. In his personal life, his relationships were mostly thorny because he was forthright, especially in his letters about his own failings and problems with his romantic partners. He had a functionally open marriage with his wife Molly even though he expected her to tolerate much from him, including hearing about his philandering. But resentments accumulated. 

After Kazan directed Death of A Salesman and A Streetcar Named Desire on Broadway, both becoming legendary hits, everybody wanted to work with him. He had a string of movie successes including the film version of Streetcar and other hits Gentlemen’s Agreement, Viva Zapata, On the Waterfront, Baby Doll, Splendor in the Grass, and internationally, his personal favorite America, America. His last productions on stage included Arthur Miller’s After the Fall and J. B. by Archibald Macleish.

Kazan’s forceful, take no prisoners personality attracted top actors, producers, and writers. He recognized talent and did everything to gain their trust but did not bend to their will. Take this letter to Tennessee Williams when Kazan was directing Williams’ erratically conceived play Camino Real. Kazan instructs Tennessee to get his lover, Frank Merlo, away from him and rewrite the first act. Kazan could unerringly sensitivity in the theater, but he never lost sight of a critical analysis. In casting Viva Zapata he told Zanuck that studio stars were rarely worth the money.

Kazan fiercely defended text that he felt dealt with sex in a realistic adult manner, in ways that few filmmakers would be willing to fight for, which put him at odds with studio heads who had to answer to not only industry censorship but the Catholic League of Decency which yielded such immense power they could kill a film‘s release.

It is hard not to skip forward to Kazan’s infamous appearances before Sen. McCarthy’s House on Un-American Activities committee is revealed by a few references by Kazan himself in the letters, always defending his testimony as fair and not a betrayal to colleagues, but he only refers to them in a few spots at the time of his appearance and later alludes to friends who dropped him.

Many accounts support the assertion that Kazan did what he had to do to continue to be the most sought after and influential director of his generation, but many never forgave Kazan for his betrayal, however rationalized. He had to know that this was a one sided political attack and that he was playing a part in having colleagues, writers, actors, designers and directors - who would be blacklisted. 

Arthur Miller, for one, his closest professional relationship and friend, didn’t speak to him for ten years. 

For readers with more than a passing interest in this period of American theater and film, The Selected Letters of Elia Kazan is a real-time archive from a seminal insider. For readers looking for anecdotes about legendary stars of the era like James Dean, Montgomery Clift, Natalie Wood, Paul Newman, Marilyn Monroe, Marlon Brando, Vivien Leigh, and Robert De Niro, the latter whom Kazan directed in The Last Tycoon, be warned, they may pop up in these letters, but not in any starry eyed context.