page_title: Edwin Denby (poet)
section_title: Writing
hierarchical_section_title: Edwin Denby (poet) / Writing
caption_attribution_description: English: Facsimile of color silkscreen poster for Federal Theatre Project presentation of "Horse Eats Hat" by Edwin Denby (1903-1983) after Eugène Labiche (1815-188) at the Maxine Elliott Theatre, 109 West 39th Street, New York City.
context_page_description: Edwin Orr Denby was an American writer of dance criticism, poetry, and a novel, but is perhaps now best known for his work with Orson Welles in translating and adapting the 1851 French comedy The Italian Straw Hat to the American stage in 1936 in the form of the farce Horse Eats Hat.
context_section_description: In 1935, soon after Denby's return to New York City, Orson Welles and John Houseman asked him to help translate and adapt The Italian Straw Hat, by Eugene Labiche and Marc-Michel, for the Broadway stage. The resulting play, titled Horse Eats Hat, was scored by Paul Bowles, and was performed as a Works Progress Administration Federal Theatre Production in 1936. Denby also appeared in the play, playing one half of "The Horse".
  During his lifetime, being ambivalent about the publication of his poetry, he was known primarily as a dance critic. At the behest of Aaron Copland and Virgil Thomson, he began writing a dance column for the magazine Modern Music in 1936. In 1943, Thomson drafted Denby as the dance critic for the New York Herald Tribune.
caption: Poster for the Federal Theatre production of Horse Eats Hat at the Maxine Elliott Theatre (1936)
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