Merton Hodge
Merton Emerton Hodge (28 March 1903 – 9 October 1958) was a playwright, actor and medical practitioner. Born in Taruheru, Poverty Bay, New Zealand, he studied at Kings College in Auckland, Otago Medical School in 1925, graduated in 1928 (M.B., Ch.B), completed post-graduate studies at Edinburgh University. As well as continuing his medical studies Hodge pursued his lifelong interest in theatre and continued to write plays throughout his working medical life. Plays. Hodge is best known for his comedy "The Wind and the Rain", which was performed 1,001 times, from 1933, at St. Martin's Theatre in  London's West End, and six months in 1934 at the Ritz Theatre on New York's Broadway, toured the world and was translated into nine languages. Plays produced in London: Recordings. His suicide by drowning came in Dunedin in 1958. Publications. The plays "The Wind and the rain", "Grief goes over", "Men in white, The Island, Story of an African farm" and a novelised version of "The Wind and the rain", 1936.