William F. Talbot (1923-2007) was for 52 years Editor-in-Chief of Samuel French, Inc., a publishing company that provided published plays and musical plays to theatrical groups, from elementary schools to professional troupes. Over his career he read more than 100,000 plays, saw almost every play produced in New York for forty years, and launched dozens of new playwrights.
Talbot actively encouraged new writers and taught playwriting at the City College of New York, Hunter College, and for Double Image Theater. In addition, he created the Off Off Broadway One-Act Play Festival, the prize for which was publication of the winning play by Samuel French. Under his pen name William Francis he also wrote several plays; one, Portrait of a Queen, was produced on Broadway and London’s West End in 1968.
He was a member of the Outer Critics Circle, the Dramatists Guild, the American Theatre Critics Association, and the College of Fellows of the American Theatre. Talbot had degrees from the University of Notre Dame, and Columbia University. He and wife Marilyn Fagan had six children.
From the guide to the William F. Talbot Papers, circa 1954-1993, (Special Collections Research Center, Syracuse University Libraries)
