Gertrude Tonkonogy Friedberg (died September 17, 1989, aged 81) was an American playwright

Playwright

A playwright, also called a dramatist, is a person who writes plays.The term is not a variant spelling of "playwrite", but something quite distinct: the word wright is an archaic English term for a craftsman or builder...

 and author.

Friedberg wrote two Broadway plays, Town House which was based on stories by John Cheever

John Cheever

John William Cheever was an American novelist and short story writer. He is sometimes called "the Chekhov of the suburbs." His fiction is mostly set in the Upper East Side of Manhattan, the Westchester suburbs, old New England villages based on various South Shore towns around Quincy,...

, and Three-Cornered-Moon which starred Ruth Gordon

Ruth Gordon

Ruth Gordon Jones , better known as Ruth Gordon, was an American actress and writer. She was perhaps best known for her film roles such as Minnie Castevet, Rosemary's overly solicitous neighbor in Rosemary's Baby, as the eccentric Maude in Harold and Maude and as the mother of Orville Boggs in the...

 and Brian Donlevy

Brian Donlevy

Brian Donlevy was an Irish-born American film actor, noted for playing tough guys from the 1930s to the 1960s. He usually appeared in supporting roles. Among his best known films are Beau Geste and The Great McGinty...

, and was later made into a film of the same name

Three-Cornered Moon

Three-Cornered Moon is a 1933 film directed by Elliot Nugent, and written by Ray Harris and S.K. Lauren, based on play by Gertrude Tonkonogy Friedberg. The film reached No...

. Friedberg also published several humorous short stories and a science-fiction novel for Ace Science Fiction Specials

Ace Science Fiction Specials

Ace Science Fiction Specials are three series of science fiction and fantasy books published by Ace Books between 1968 and 1990. Terry Carr edited the first and third series, taking the "TV special" concept and adapting it to paperback marketing...

 in 1966, entitled Revolving Boy.

Personal life

Friedberg had two children, Richard and Barbara. Her siblings included Eugene Tonkonogy, the real estate entrepreneur and owner of the Caribbean Island Marina Cay

Marina Cay

Marina Cay is an island of the British Virgin Islands in the Caribbean.The island was uninhabited until 1937, when author Robb White and newly married wife Rosalie “Rodie” Mason settled on the island...

.