ABSTRACT
The son of Joseph Simon and Henrietta Myers, George S. Kaufman was born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, on November 16, 1889. His father held various jobs that took the family from Pittsburgh to New Castle back to Pittsburgh, then to Paterson, New Jersey. George was educated in public schools. He wrote his first play at age fourteen and joined a dramatic society at the family Temple Rodef Shalom, where he showed ability as an actor. He then worked at numerous jobs: surveyor, clerk, stenographer, and salesman, while continuing to write. Beginning in 1909, his humorous verses appeared regularly in Franklin Pierce Adams's "Always in Good Humor" column in the New York Evening Mail. Kaufman met Beatrice Bakrow in 1916, and after an eight-month courtship they were married March 15, 1917. Kaufman then returned to the Tribune as a reporter in the drama department.
