Geza Silberer


Gustav A. "Geza" Silberer was an Austrian journalist and author of Jewish extraction born in Werschetz who wrote in German under the pseudonym Sil-Vara.

Biography

Gustav Silberer was a journalist for Neue Freie Presse and a colleague of Theodor Herzl, who was impressed by his work and provided him with encouragement early on in his career.

Literary career

In 1912, while living in London, he and Charles H. Fisher adapted The Playboy of the Western World as Der Held des Westerlands and had it published by Georg Müller and performed at Max Reinhardt's Kammerspiele, Berlin, at the Neue Wiener Bühne in Vienna and at the Stadttheater in Münster.
A contemporary review of Englische Staatsmänner states that it was clear he had spent time in London and had close relations with the political figures he describes. The Vossische Zeitung "Aunt Voss" observes that readers would agreeably surprised to find Asquith, Curzon, Viscount Grey and Churchill treated "not as enemies but as men".
His play Ein Tag: Lustspiel in Drei Akten, adapted by theatre director Philip Moeller as Caprice, had a successful run in 1929 at New York's Theatre Guild, then elsewhere.
His play Mädchenjahre einer Königin about the young Queen Victoria was the basis of several movies of the same name in 1936 and 1954
Several of his books are still in print: Ein Wiener Landsturmmann and Ein Tag: Lustspiel in Drei Akten

Published works

Silvaraweg, a street in Döbling, Vienna was named for him in 1966.