Shepherd Mead

Shepherd Mead, born Edward Mead (April 26, 1914 – August 15, 1994) was an American writer. He is best known as the author of How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying, which was adapted into a hit Broadway show and motion picture.

Biography

Mead, a native of St. Louis, graduated with an A.B. from Washington University in St. Louis in 1936. He joined the Benton & Bowles advertising agency in 1936 as a mail-room clerk, and worked his way up to a vice-presidency by the time he left in 1956 to pursue a writing career.

In 1957 Mead moved to Switzerland and in the following year to Great Britain, where he worked as an advertising consultant. He went on to write 19 novels, including The Big Ball of Wax: A Story of Tomorrow's Happy World (1954) describing life in the future year 1993, and The Carefully Considered Rape of the World: A Novel about the Unspeakable (1965), in which all of Earth's fertile women are simultaneously impregnated by baboon-like extraterrestrials. In 1968 he moved back to Switzerland, but then returned to Great Britain in 1978. He died in London in August 1994.

How to Succeed ...

Mead's best known book has no plot; it is a satire of an instructional manual, very similar in form and subject matter to Stephen Potter's Gamesmanship. Mead's book was inspired by his corporate experiences; How to Succeed satirized contemporary office life in the United States in the guise of a self-help book. Published in 1952, it was written in his spare time - before work and on weekends. Its subtitle was "The dastard's guide to fame and fortune."

The book was a best-seller, and in 1961 it was adapted into a musical by Frank Loesser, with book by Abe Burrows. the play differs significantly from the book. It satirizes Mead's own career by depicting the rise of eager young J. Pierrepont Finch ... a window-washer who joins a huge corporation by starting in the mail room, and becomes chairman of the board a week later. The play starred Robert Morse as the young striver J. Pierrepont Finch and Rudy Vallee as the company president J.W. Biggley.

The play was a smash hit, with a Broadway run of 1,417 performances between October 1961 and March 1965. It won eight Tony Awards and the 1962 Pulitzer Prize for best drama. It was adapted into a movie, also starring Morse and several other members of the Broadway cast, in 1967. It was successfully revived on Broadway in 1995, starring Matthew Broderick as Finch. A 2011 revival, starring Daniel Radcliffe, opened on March 27.

Quote

"Not even computers will replace committees, because committees buy computers."—Shepherd Mead, quoted in the Wall Street Journal, June 18, 1964.

Works

Shepherd Mead at the Internet Movie Database

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