Who wrote the play: "Brandeis", in The Eternal Light [New York : Crown, 1947], edited by Morton Wishengrad (1913-1963)? Was it Wishengrad?
Answer:
I consulted The Eternal Light. It does not state explicitly who wrote each play. However, in Louis Finkelstein’s “Foreword”, he uses wording that strongly suggests that Wishengrad authored all the scripts in the volume. Finkelstein refers to Wishengrad (on p.viii) as “the author of this volume”. In Wishengrad’s essay at the beginning of the volume, he also seems to indicate that he wrote all the scripts. (He does say (on p.xxxv) that Finkelstein and Moshe Davis contributed to the creation of the scripts and that “[t]here are texts in these scripts that originate with Dr. Davis. They were shamelessly appropriated and no acknowledgement given until this moment”.) The title page states: “The Eternal Light by Morton Wishengrad”. According to the verso of the title page, the copyright’s for the scripts are held variously by JTS, NBC, or Wishengrad. Both the JTS Library catalog and the WorldCat database, list Wishengrad as the sole author of the plays. Finally, The Eternal Light : An Unauthorized Guide, by Eli Segal [Newtown, CT : Yesteryear Press, 2005], lists Wishengrad as the author of "Brandeis" on p.38, and again on p.48. In summary, I believe one can state that Wishengrad is the author of "Brandeis".
