by Gordon Richardson
Under the pen name John Herbert, John Herbert Brundage (1926-2001), wrote the play in 1963 for which he is best known, Fortune and Men’s Eyes. An autobiographically based prison drama, it premiered in 1967 off-Broadway and from there went on to international success still unmatched by any other Canadian dramatic work. The play resulted in the formation of the Fortune Society, an influential prison reform movement in New York City, and it has been made into a movie shown in over thirty countries.
The ArQuives collection includes a copy of the play and the Underwood manual typewriter on which the play was written.