Sophie Treadwell

Sophie Anita Treadwell (October 3, 1885 – February 20, 1970), was a noteworthy American playwright and journalist of the first half of the 20th century. She is best known for her play Machinal which is often included in drama anthologies as an example of a expressionist or modernist play. Treadwell wrote dozens of plays, several novels, as well as serial stories and countless articles that appeared in newspapers. In addition to writing plays for the theatre, Treadwell also produced, directed and acted in some of her productions. The styles and subjects of Treadwell's writings are vast, but many present women's issues of her time, subjects of current media coverage, or aspects of Treadwell's Mexican heritage.

Sophie Anita Treadwell was born in 1885 in . Between 1890 and 1891, Treadwell's father, Alfred Treadwell, deserted her and her mother and moved to San Francisco. Although Treadwell originally excelled at school, after her father left she struggled, which others have attributed to the frequency with which she and her mother relocated. While Treadwell primarily lived with her mother, occasionally Treadwell would spend summers in San Francisco with her father. During these visits, Treadwell was first exposed to theatre; she witnessed famous actresses Helena Modjeska and Sarah Bernhardt in The Merchant of Venice and Phèdre, respectively. In 1902, Treadwell and her mother, Nettie Fairchild Treadwell, moved to San Francisco.

Although Treadwell's father was also born in Stockton, CA, he spent most of his formative years in Mexico with his native born mother. Both Treadwell's paternal grandmother and great-grandmother were Mexican women of Spanish descent. Treadwell's father had a Catholic education and was fluent in five languages. Treadwell's strong female role model was her grandmother Anna Gray Fairchild, a Scottish immigrant, who managed the family's large ranch in Stockton after the death of her husband. Traces of Treadwell's heritage—both Mexican and European can be gleaned from her works, as can references to her parents' troubled marriage and her time spent at the ranch in Stockton.

Treadwell received her Bachelor of Letters in French from the University of California at Berkeley, where she studied from 1902-1906. At Berkeley, Treadwell became very involved with the school's extracurricular drama and journalism activities, serving as the college's correspondent for The San Francisco Examiner. Due to financial pressure, Treadwell had to work several jobs during her studies; receiving additional training in shorthand and typing, teaching English as a second language in the evenings, as well as working in the circulation department of the San Francisco Call. It was also during this time that she first began to write; early drafts of shorter plays, songs, and short fictional stories. During college, Treadwell had her first brushes with mental illness, a variety of nervous conditions that would plague her and lead to several extended hospitalizations throughout her life.

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