My Heart’s in the Highlands premiered at the Guild Theatre on Broadway on April 13, 1939, produced by the Group Theatre. It was published by Harcourt, Brace in 1939. The play was Saroyan’s first to reach Broadway and ran for six weeks — not a commercial hit but a critical sensation that established him as a theatrical voice unlike any other on the American stage.
Ben Alexander is a boy living with his father — a failed poet who cannot sell his work — in a rundown house in Fresno. An old man, Jasper MacGregor, appears — a former actor who plays the bugle beautifully. When he plays, the neighbors bring food and drink. The three live together in a poverty that is not grinding but luminous: art (the father’s poetry, Jasper’s bugle, Ben’s innocent wonder) transforms material deprivation into spiritual richness.
The play is pure Saroyan: plotless, sentimental without apology, built on the conviction that human goodness is real and that the proper response to poverty is not anger but generosity. Critics who demand conflict, development, and resolution in drama have always been frustrated by Saroyan; audiences who respond to warmth, humor, and compassion have always loved him.
Collecting My Heart’s in the Highlands
First edition (Harcourt, Brace, New York, 1939): In Three Plays, cloth with dust jacket.
Market values:
- First edition with jacket, fine/fine: $60–$150
- Without jacket, very good: $20–$50
Projected values (2026–2036): Moderate appreciation. Saroyan’s first play.
A Play in One Act
My Heart’s in the Highlands (1939) was Saroyan’s first produced play — a one-act about a boy, his poet father, and an old man with a bugle in a poor California neighborhood. The play ran on Broadway with a Group Theatre production and established Saroyan as a theatrical talent. Its gentle, lyrical, and deliberately naive quality divided critics: some found it fresh and moving, others sentimental and formless. It set the pattern for Saroyan’s dramatic career — plays that relied on character, mood, and generosity of spirit rather than plot.
Frequently Asked Questions
Was Saroyan a major playwright? He was significant in the late 1930s and early 1940s, when My Heart’s in the Highlands and The Time of Your Life made him a Broadway star. His theatrical career faded after World War II, but both plays remain in the repertoire.