Bernard Grebanier (1903-1977) was an American drama historian, critic, writer and poet, most notable for his studies of the works of William Shakespeare. Grebanier was a professor of English at Brooklyn College from 1926 until 1964. In 1941 he was quoted in evidence presented to the Supreme Court of the United States denouncing a former associate professor as a Communist during the professor's appeal against dismissal from his position.
Grebanier was friendly with other drama critics in the greater New York but perhaps none was a better friend than New York Evening Post editor and chief drama critic Joseph Cookman. When Cookman died in 1944, the Post selected Grebanier's tribute to run in the paper among the dozens of tributes sent in.
Grebanier was Brooklyn College's most popular professor between the end of World War II and his retirement in 1965. His Shakespeare classes enrolled hundreds of students every semester. His method of teaching involved a line-by-line reading of Shakespeare's plays, interspersed with commentary on art, politics, and human psychology. Most influential of his books are The Heart of Hamlet, The Truth About Shylock, and Playwriting. In these he 1) characterizes Hamlet as misunderstood by critics, as the hero is neither passive, delaying, crazy, or acting crazy, but rather a Renaissance man who tackles the difficult task of proving Claudius guilty and then proceeds to exact revenge; 2) maintains that Shakespeare does not pursue the question of anti-Semitism in The Merchant of Venice but rather uses the stereotype of the Jewish moneylender to ask critical questions about cold-hearted bankers and human compassion; 3) establishes fundamental concepts in the structure of drama that still prevail in creative writing courses across the country.
