John Bush Jones is an American author and retired theatre critic, educator and theatre director. He was born in Chicago and received an undergraduate degree in Speech, with Distinction, from Northwestern University in 1962. He earned his Ph.D. from Northwestern In 1970. He reviewed drama for the Kansas City Star and taught English at the University of Kansas before joining the faculty at Brandeis University in 1978, in the Theater Arts Department. In 1996, he received the Louis Dembitz Brandeis Prize for Excellence in Teaching. At Brandeis, Jones served on the organizing committee for many years of the Kennedy Center American College Theater Festival. He directed numerous plays and musicals both at Brandeis and in professional theatre, including Ruddigore, Uncommon Women and Others and She Loves Me. He retired from Brandeis in 2001. He is the author of many articles and has written theatre criticism for several newspapers and magazines. His books include "W. S. Gilbert: A Century of Scholarship and Commentary", Readings in Descriptive Bibliography, Our Musicals, Ourselves: A Social History of the American Musical Theater, The Songs That Fought the War, and All-Out for Victory! 

August 1940 in