Ellsworth Prouty Conkle was born on a farm in Peru, Nebraska on July 10, 1899. Married to the former Virginia Carol McNeal, he is the father of Ellsworth Prouty Conkle II and Alice Elena Conkle Cogdell. E.P. Conkle completed his undergraduate education at the University of Nebraska in 1923, and did graduate work at Yale University in 1928. He earned his Ph.D in playwriting from the University of Iowa in 1936. His awards include a Guggenheim Fellowship in 1930, Rockefeller Fellowships in 1935 and 1945, and a University of Texas Graduate School research grant in 1966. An assistant professor of speech at the University of Iowa from 1936-1939, Conkle then became an associate professor (1939-1945), and then full professor of drama (1945-1973) at the University of Texas at Austin.

A prolific writer, his works include many published and unpublished plays. He was the author of the radio series Honest Abe produced by the Columbia Broadcasting System, in thirty-six parts in 1940 and 1941. The play Prologue to Glory was chosen for production by the Federal Theatre Project, and performed throughout the United States in 1938-1939. His former students include Tennessee Williams, Pat Hingle, Tommy Tune, and Fess Parker.

Included in the E.P. Conkle Collection are plays, poetry, short stories, and book manuscripts written by E.P. Conkle; playbills and director's notes from various productions of Prologue to Glory; the radio script to Honest Abe; correspondence between Conkle and his wife, Virginia McNeal Conkle.