Was twice nominated for Broadway's Tony Award: in 1958 as author of
Best Play nominee "Look Homeward, Angel," and in 1967 as co-author of
book with Roger O. Hirson of Best Musical nominee "Walking Happy."
Won the 1958 Pulitzer Prize for Drama for the play "Look Homeward, Angel".
Of Scottish and Irish ancestry. Started in advertising, then became a publicity agent. Later worked on scripts for radio and also ghost-wrote materials released by stars in movie magazines, using the pseudonym Anita Kilgore. Her best-known film work was her screenplay adapted from William Inge's play 'Come Back, Little Sheba' (1952).
It was widely believed that her marriage to the agent Kurt Frings, who arrived in America as a refugee, was the inspiration for her own story, "Memo To A Movie Producer", famously filmed as "Hold Back The Dawn".