Background
Rose Dorothy Lewin was born on December 28, 1895, in Gainesville, Texas. She was the daughter of Hannah (Younker) and Michael Lewin. Franken as a young child moved with her mother to New York after her mother had left her father.
Rose Dorothy Lewin was born on December 28, 1895, in Gainesville, Texas. She was the daughter of Hannah (Younker) and Michael Lewin. Franken as a young child moved with her mother to New York after her mother had left her father.
Rose attended the Ethical Culture School, in New York. Then, she married young instead of attending Barnard College which was what her mother had wanted for her.
In spite of her active domestic life, after writing her first book, Pattern, in 1925, Franken seriously decided to pursue a writing career. Pattern, which enjoyed some success, tells the story of a young woman who cannot break her dependence on her mother even after marrying. This dilemma becomes a recurring theme for Franken and also appears in the first Claudia novel.
Franken broke into the theater with her first Broadway play, Another Language. It was an overnight success, and she enjoyed much fame, as well as controversy, with her following plays. For Franken, entering into the theater world was seen as a great accomplishment. Her success in this field was especially noteworthy since she had no previous theatrical training. Another Language was mostly seen as a comedy by its audience, even though Franken wrote it with the serious intention of upsetting people and making them think. In it, she questions the role of tyrannical mothers and the value systems of most of her generation. In Another Language one encounters the themes of insularity, provincialism, the intolerance of the middle-class family, and the role of women in American society. Franken would continue to explore all of these themes throughout her career in her theater work and to a lesser extent in her novels.
Franken went to Hollywood in 1933 after the death of her husband and there collaborated with other writers on movie scripts. She met W. B. Meloney while working with him on Beloved Enemy in 1936, and in 1937 they got married. While in Hollywood, she continued to write her short stories for magazines such as Good Housekeeping and Redbook. From these short stories, the character of Claudia was born.
In the “Claudia” books especially this particular viewpoint is emphasized by Franken. The play Claudia came out in 1941 to much critical praise, especially seen in a review by a Commonweal critic who called it “a delightful comedy, poignant, witty, original in the characterization of its chief protagonist.” After this success, Franken and Meloney acted as co-producers for the rest of her theatrical career. Her next play was Outrageous Fortune, which came out in 1943. Many critics praised the production and acting but had a hard time with the subject matter. The play was a bit controversial for the time and because of this, it received many negative and mixed reviews. The praise she received came from a few critics who admired her courage in dealing with these particular themes.
After The Hallams, Franken got out of the theater and continued her successful career as a short story writer and novelist. She came out with Rendezvous in 1954, which was described as engaging and amusing, but superficial, by some critics. Toward the end of her life, Franken wrote her autobiography, When All is Said and Done, and followed it up with a humorous book, You’re Well Out of the Hospital, at the age of seventy-one.
Claudia was described as one of the classic characters of American literature and she embodied the charm and idealism of her time. Franken lived a very full, productive life and fully embodied her idea of the modern woman, which she described in most of her novels. Throughout her career, she was able to successfully balance playwriting and directing with writing novels and short stories.
On September 1, 1915, Rose Franken married Sigmund Franken, but he died in 1932. She, then, married William B. Meloney, on April 27, 1937. Rose had three sons.