Background

Helene Wickham Koon was born on October 14, 1924 in Minneapolis, Minnesota, United States.

Education

Helene Wickham Koon graduated from the University of Iowa. She then obtained her Master of Arts at the Pasadena Playhouse in 1948. In 1969 Koon earned a doctorate in English at the University of California in Los Angeles.

Career

Helene Wickham Koon pursued an earlier career as an actress, director and writer for theaters and radio stations in California and New Mexico. She spent twenty-one years working as an actress, director, and writer for radio programs, small theaters, and a Los Angeles television station, even appearing in the now-forgotten science fiction film "The Lost Missile" (1958).

But halfway through life her interests changed to writing. In 1969 Koon joined the faculty of what was then California State College and was appointed a full professor in 1978. She also served as chairwoman of the department from 1975 to 1980.

Koon was the author of biographies of Colley Cibber, an English actor and dramatist (1671-1757), and Eugene Scribe, the French playwright (1791-1861). She also published "How Shakespeare Won the West", a study of Shakespearean stage productions during the Gold Rush, and "Dictionary of Gold Rush Performers", among other books.

Achievements

• Helene Wickham Koon was best known for her books "How Shakespeare Won the West: Players and Performers in America’s Gold Rush, 1848-1865" (1989) and "Gold Rush Performers: A Biographical Dictionary of Actors, Singers, Dancers, Musicians, Circus Performers, and Minstrel Players in America’s Far West, 1848 to 1869" (1994).
  
  WSECS established Helene W. Koon Memorial Award as a tribute to the innovative scholarship, creative teaching, and generous spirit of Helene W. Koon, a scholar of eighteenth-century dramatic literature and professor of English at California State University, San Bernardino.

Works

More photos

• book

  • How Shakespeare Won the West: Players and Performances in America's Gold Rush, 1849-1865 1989
  • Gold Rush Performers: A Biographical Dictionary of Actors, Singers, Dancers, Musicians, Circus Performers and Minstrel Players in America's Far West 1994
  • Death of a Salesman (20th Century Interpretations) 1983

Connections

Friend:

Bernard P. Wiesen

References

• Contemporary Authors New Revision Series