DRAMATISTS GUILD, INC.

   The professional organization of American playwrights grew out of earlier clubs that had been formed to protect dramatists. The American Dramatic Authors' Society (1878) was succeeded by the American Dramatists Club (1891). Because the latter did not admit women, Martha Morton organized a Society of Dramatic Authors (1907) with a charter membership of 30 women. The two groups soon consolidated as the Society of American Dramatists and Composers (SADC), with Bronson Howard as president and Morton as vice president. The Dramatists' Guild (DG), which supplanted it, was founded in 1920.