2013 Essays

Winifred Dunn

Hansen, James

Known for being one of the youngest scenario editors, male or female, during the silent era, Winifred Dunn, like Anita Loos, started writing at a young age. As a girl in Chicago, Dunn discovered her skills as a writer as well as a translator when at the age of eighteen she translated a German play into English and altered the production to fit an American stage. While still in her teens, Dunn began writing two-reel film plays for Selig Polyscope in New York, where her first original feature Too Late (1914) was produced (II16).