Press Releases

August 4, 1999
Book Collection of Late Playwright Steven Nelson Donated to Southampton College

Former East Hampton Resident, Edward Albee Associate Bequeaths Books to Library

Contact:
Joe Dionisio (JDionisio@Southampton.liu.edu)
(516) 287 8313
Fax: (516) 283 4081

Southampton, NY-- The library at Southampton College of Long Island University has received a donation of nearly 300 books from the late playwright Steven B. Nelson, who spent many summers in East Hampton and also lived in New York and Ellijay, Ga.

The books have been gift-plated and placed in the general collection of the College library, said its director Robert Gerbereux. Topics include modern American drama, the art of playwrighting, gay literature, and modern art.

"Jake Rufli [the executor of Nelson's estate] knew Steve loved the Hamptons, so the College seemed a logical place to donate the collection," said William Peterson, a retired Southampton College professor of English. "Steve was a very promising playwright."

Nelson, author of The Robert Pieces and The Squirrels, associated with author Joe Pintauro, who introduced him to Howard Moss, then of The New Yorker. Nelson worked for the noted poetry editor for several years, cataloguing Moss' library and typing manuscripts.

While with the Aboutface theater group in New York, Nelson met playwright Edward Albee, who lent his support to a 1987 presentation of The Squirrels at the John Drew Theatre in East Hampton. Nelson's influences were Eugene O'Neill and Albee.

While in the Hamptons, Nelson completed his last full-length play, A Wasp in the Car, and a stage adaptation of Herman Melville's The Confidence Man. Encouraged by Moss and Pintauro, Nelson also wrote poetry. He had earlier published Straight from the Shoulder, a collection of his poems.

His New York productions included The Robert Pieces at the Nat Horne Theatre in 1991, The Grand Guignol at Playhouse 91, and Moonboys Last Night at the Circle Rep.

Nelson, who spent a year at the Iowa Writers Workshop, earned a B.A. in Theatre Arts from Lake Erie College, where Rufli was his theater professor.

Nelson died January 7, 1998, in Ellijay, Ga., from a recurrence of Lyme disease.

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