BIBLIOGRAPHIES
Actable One-Act PlaysChicago Public Library, 1916
Plays and Books of the Little Theatre.Compiled by Frank Shay.
A List of Plays and Pageants.Prepared by the Committee on Pageantry, War Work Council, Young Woman's Christian Associations. 1919.
Plays for Amateurs.Arranged by John Mantel Clapp. Drama League of America. Chicago. 1915.
Guide To Selecting Playsfor the use of professionals and amateurs. By Wentworth Hogg.French.1916.
The Dramatic Books and Plays.An annual compilation by Henry Eastman Lower and George Heron Milne. Boston Book Co.
A new volume of criticisms of plays and papers on acting, play-making, and other dramatic problems, by Walter Prichard Eaton, dramatic critic, and author of "The American Stage of To-day," "At the New Theater and Others," "Idyl of the Twin Fires," etc. The new volume begins with plays produced as far back as 1910, and brings the record down to the current year. One section is devoted to American plays, one to foreign plays acted on our stage, one to various revivals of Shakespeare. These sections form a record of the important activities of the American theater for the past six years, and constitute about half of the volume. The remainder of the book is given over to various discussions of the actor's art, of play construction, of the new stage craft, of new movements in our theater, such as the Washington Square Players, and several lighter essays in the satiric vein which characterized the author's work when he was the dramatic critic of theNew York Sun. Unlike most volumes of criticisms, this one is illustrated, the pictures of the productions described in the text furnishing an additional historical record. At a time when the drama is regaining its lost position of literary dignity it is particularly fitting that dignified and intelligent criticism and discussion should also find accompanying publication.
Toronto Saturday Night:
Mr. Eaton writes well and with dignity and independence. His book should find favor with the more serious students of the Drama of the Day.
Mr. Eaton writes well and with dignity and independence. His book should find favor with the more serious students of the Drama of the Day.
Detroit Free Press:
This is one of the most interesting and also valuable books on the modern drama that we have encountered in that period popularly referred to as "a dog's age." Mr. Eaton is a competent and well-esteemed critic. The book is a record of the activities of the American stage since 1910, down to the present. Mr. Eaton succinctly restores the play to the memory, revisualizes the actors, and puts the kernel of it into a nutshell for us to ponder over and by which to correct our impressions.
This is one of the most interesting and also valuable books on the modern drama that we have encountered in that period popularly referred to as "a dog's age." Mr. Eaton is a competent and well-esteemed critic. The book is a record of the activities of the American stage since 1910, down to the present. Mr. Eaton succinctly restores the play to the memory, revisualizes the actors, and puts the kernel of it into a nutshell for us to ponder over and by which to correct our impressions.
Large 12mo. About 420 pages, 10 full-page illustrations on Cameo Paper and End PapersGilt top. 3/4 Maroon Turkey Morocco
Net$3.00Net8.50
Francois de Curel'sThe FossilsJean Jullien'sThe SerenadeGeorges de Porto-Riche'sFrancoise' LuckGeorges Ancey'sThe Dupe
Translated with an introduction on Antoine and Theatre Libre by BARRETT H. CLARK. Preface by BRIEUX, of the French Academy, and a Sonnet by EDMOND ROSTAND.
The Review of Reviews says:
"A lengthy introduction, which is a gem of condensed information."
"A lengthy introduction, which is a gem of condensed information."
H. L. Mencken (in the Smart Set) says:
"Here we have, not only skilful playwriting, but also sound literature."
"Here we have, not only skilful playwriting, but also sound literature."
Brander Matthews says:
"The book is welcome to all students of the modern stage. It contains the fullest account of the activities of Antoine's Free Theater to be found anywhere—even in French."
"The book is welcome to all students of the modern stage. It contains the fullest account of the activities of Antoine's Free Theater to be found anywhere—even in French."
The Chicago Tribune says:
"Mr. Clark's translations, with their accurate and comprehensive prefaces, are necessary to anyone interested in modern drama.... If the American reader will forget Yankee notions of morality ... if the reader will assume the French point of view, this book will prove a rarely valuable experience. Mr. Clark has done this important task excellently."
"Mr. Clark's translations, with their accurate and comprehensive prefaces, are necessary to anyone interested in modern drama.... If the American reader will forget Yankee notions of morality ... if the reader will assume the French point of view, this book will prove a rarely valuable experience. Mr. Clark has done this important task excellently."
Handsomely Bound. 12mo. Cloth3/4 Turkey Morocco
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In "Contemporary French Dramatists" Mr. Barrett H. Clark, author of "The Continental Drama of Today," "The British and American Drama of Today," translator of "Four Plays of the Free Theater," and of various plays of Donnay, Hervieu, Lemaitre, Sardou, Lavedan, etc., has contributed the first collection of studies on the modern French theater. Mr. Clark takes up the chief dramatists of France beginning with the Théâtre Libre: Curel, Brieux, Hervieu, Lemaître, Lavedan, Donnay, Porto-Riche, Rostand, Bataille, Bernstein, Capus, Flers, and Caillavet. The book contains numerous quotations from the chief representative plays of each dramatist, a separate chapter on "Characteristics" and the most complete bibliography to be found anywhere.
This book gives a study of contemporary drama in France which has been more neglected than any other European country.
Independent, New York:
"Almost indispensable to the student of the theater."
"Almost indispensable to the student of the theater."
Boston Transcript:
"Mr. Clark's method of analyzing the works of the Playwrights selected is simple and helpful. * * * As a manual for reference or story, 'Contemporary French Dramatists,' with its added bibliographical material, will serve well its purpose."
"Mr. Clark's method of analyzing the works of the Playwrights selected is simple and helpful. * * * As a manual for reference or story, 'Contemporary French Dramatists,' with its added bibliographical material, will serve well its purpose."
Uniform with FOUR PLAYS. Handsomely bound.
Cloth3/4 Turkey Morocco
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In the present work the famous dramatic critic and biographer of Shaw has considered six representative dramatists outside of the United States, some living, some dead—Strindberg, Ibsen, Maeterlinck, Wilde, Shaw, Barker, and Schnitzler.
Velma Swanston Howard says:
"Prof. Henderson's appraisal of Strindberg is certainly the fairest, kindest and most impersonal that I have yet seen. The author has that rare combination of intellectual power and spiritual insight which casts a clear, strong light upon all subjects under his treatment."
"Prof. Henderson's appraisal of Strindberg is certainly the fairest, kindest and most impersonal that I have yet seen. The author has that rare combination of intellectual power and spiritual insight which casts a clear, strong light upon all subjects under his treatment."
Baltimore Evening Sun:
"Prof. Henderson's criticism is not only notable for its understanding and good sense, but also for the extraordinary range and accuracy of its information."
"Prof. Henderson's criticism is not only notable for its understanding and good sense, but also for the extraordinary range and accuracy of its information."
Jeanette L. Gilder, in theChicago Tribune:
"Henderson is a writer who throws new light on old subjects."
"Henderson is a writer who throws new light on old subjects."
Chicago Record Herald:
"His essays in interpretation are welcome. Mr. Henderson has a catholic spirit and writes without parochial prejudice—a thing deplorably rare among American critics of the present day. * * * One finds that one agrees with Mr. Henderson's main contentions and is eager to break a lance with him about minor points, which is only a way of saying that he is stimulating, that he strikes sparks. He knows his age thoroughly and lives in it with eager sympathy and understanding."
"His essays in interpretation are welcome. Mr. Henderson has a catholic spirit and writes without parochial prejudice—a thing deplorably rare among American critics of the present day. * * * One finds that one agrees with Mr. Henderson's main contentions and is eager to break a lance with him about minor points, which is only a way of saying that he is stimulating, that he strikes sparks. He knows his age thoroughly and lives in it with eager sympathy and understanding."
Providence Journal:
"Henderson has done his work, within its obvious limitations, in an exceedingly competent manner. He has the happy faculty of making his biographical treatment interesting, combining the personal facts and a fairly clear and entertaining portrait of the individual with intelligent critical comment on his artistic work."
"Henderson has done his work, within its obvious limitations, in an exceedingly competent manner. He has the happy faculty of making his biographical treatment interesting, combining the personal facts and a fairly clear and entertaining portrait of the individual with intelligent critical comment on his artistic work."
Photogravure frontispiece, handsomely printed and bound, large 12mo
Net, $3.00
A vital book, popular in style, cosmopolitan in tone, appraising the drama of the past sixty years, its changes, contributions and tendencies. Has an expression of the larger realities of the art and life of our time.
E. E. HaleinThe Dial: "One of the most widely read dramatic critics of our day; few know as well as he what is 'up' in the dramatic world, what are the currents of present-day thought, what people are thinking, dreaming, doing, or trying to do."
New York Times: "Apt, happily allusive, finely informed essays on the dramatists of our own time—his essay style is vigorous and pleasing."
Book News Monthly: "Shows clear understanding of the evolution of form and spirit, and the differentiation of the forces—spiritual, intellectual and social—which are making the theatre what it is today ... we can recollect no book of recent times which has such contemporaneousness, yet which regards the subject with such excellent perspective ... almost indispensable to the general student of drama ... a book of rich perspective and sound analysis. The style is simple and direct."
Geo. MiddletoninLa Follette's: "The best attempt to formulate the tendencies which the drama is now taking in its evolutionary course."
Argonaut: "Marked by insight, discernment and enthusiasm."
Large 12mo. Dignified binding
Net, $2.50
With two plates in color (one, the frontispiece, from an autochrome by Alvin Langdon Coburn, the other from a water color by Bernard Partridge), two photogravures, 26 plates on art paper, and numerous illustrations in the text.
With two plates in color (one, the frontispiece, from an autochrome by Alvin Langdon Coburn, the other from a water color by Bernard Partridge), two photogravures, 26 plates on art paper, and numerous illustrations in the text.
In one volume, demy 8vo., cloth and gilt top, net $7.50.
This remarkable book, upon which the author has been at work for more than six years, is the authentic biography of the great Irish dramatist and socialist. In order to give it the authority which any true biography of a living man must possess, Mr. Shaw has aided the author in every possible way. The book is based not only on the voluminous mass of Mr. Shaw's works, published, uncollected in book form or unpublished, but also on extensive data furnished the author by Mr. Shaw in person.
A masterly and monumental volume, it is a history of Art, Music, Literature, Drama, Sociology, Philosophy, and the general development of the Ibsen-Nietzschean Movement in Morals for the last thirty years. The Press are unanimous in their praise of this wonderful work.
Opinions of the work and its author.
The Bookman:"A more entertaining narrative whether in biography or fiction has not appeared in recent years."The Independent:"Whatever George Bernard Shaw may think of his Biography the rest of the world will probably agree that Dr. Henderson has done a good job."Boston Herald:"This is probably the most informing and satisfactory biography of this very difficult man that has been written. A thoroughly painstaking work."
The Bookman:"A more entertaining narrative whether in biography or fiction has not appeared in recent years."
The Independent:"Whatever George Bernard Shaw may think of his Biography the rest of the world will probably agree that Dr. Henderson has done a good job."
Boston Herald:"This is probably the most informing and satisfactory biography of this very difficult man that has been written. A thoroughly painstaking work."
European Dramatists
To fill a long-felt want. All have been successfully presented. Suitable for Women's Clubs, Girls' Schools, etc. While elaborate enough for big presentation, they may be given very simply.
Review of Reviews:
"Mary MacMillan offers 'Short Plays,' a collection of pleasant one to three-act plays for women's clubs, girls' schools, and home parlor production. Some are pure comedies, others gentle satires on women's faults and foibles. 'The Futurists,' a skit on a woman's club in the year 1882, is highly amusing. 'Entr' Act' is a charming trifle that brings two quarreling lovers together through a ridiculous private theatrical. 'The Ring' carries us gracefully back to the days of Shakespeare; and 'The Shadowed Star,' the best of the collection, is a Christmas Eve tragedy. The Star is shadowed by our thoughtless inhumanity to those who serve us and our forgetfulness of the needy. The Old Woman, gone daft, who babbles in a kind of mongrel Kiltartan, of the Shepherds, the Blessed Babe, of the Fairies, rowan berries, roses and dancing, while her daughter dies on Christmas Eve, is a splendid characterization."
"Mary MacMillan offers 'Short Plays,' a collection of pleasant one to three-act plays for women's clubs, girls' schools, and home parlor production. Some are pure comedies, others gentle satires on women's faults and foibles. 'The Futurists,' a skit on a woman's club in the year 1882, is highly amusing. 'Entr' Act' is a charming trifle that brings two quarreling lovers together through a ridiculous private theatrical. 'The Ring' carries us gracefully back to the days of Shakespeare; and 'The Shadowed Star,' the best of the collection, is a Christmas Eve tragedy. The Star is shadowed by our thoughtless inhumanity to those who serve us and our forgetfulness of the needy. The Old Woman, gone daft, who babbles in a kind of mongrel Kiltartan, of the Shepherds, the Blessed Babe, of the Fairies, rowan berries, roses and dancing, while her daughter dies on Christmas Eve, is a splendid characterization."
Boston Transcript:
"Those who consigned the writer of these plays to solitude and prison fare evidently knew that 'needs must' is a sharp stimulus to high powers. If we find humor, gay or rich, if we find brilliant wit; if we find constructive ability joined with dialogue which moves like an arrow; if we find delicate and keen characterization, with a touch of genius in the choice of names; if we find poetic power which moves on easy wing—the gentle jailers of the writer are justified, and the gentle reader thanks their severity."
"Those who consigned the writer of these plays to solitude and prison fare evidently knew that 'needs must' is a sharp stimulus to high powers. If we find humor, gay or rich, if we find brilliant wit; if we find constructive ability joined with dialogue which moves like an arrow; if we find delicate and keen characterization, with a touch of genius in the choice of names; if we find poetic power which moves on easy wing—the gentle jailers of the writer are justified, and the gentle reader thanks their severity."
Salt Lake Tribune:
"The Plays are ten in number, all of goodly length. We prophesy great things for this gifted dramatist."
"The Plays are ten in number, all of goodly length. We prophesy great things for this gifted dramatist."
Bookseller, News Dealer & Stationer:
"The dialogue is permeated with graceful satire, snatches of wit, picturesque phraseology, and tender, often exquisite, expressions of sentiment."
"The dialogue is permeated with graceful satire, snatches of wit, picturesque phraseology, and tender, often exquisite, expressions of sentiment."
Handsomely Bound. 12mo. Cloth
Net, $2.50
Plays that act well may read well. Miss MacMillan's plays are good reading. Nor is literary excellence a detriment to dramatic performance. They were put on the stage before they were put into print. They differ slightly from those in the former volume. Two of them, "The Pioneers," a story of the settlement of the Ohio Valley, and "Honey," a little mountain girl cotton-mill worker, are longer. The other six, "In Mendelesia," Parts I and II, "The Dryad," "The Dress Rehearsal of Hamlet," "At the Church," and "His Second Girl," contain the spirit of humor, something of subtlety, and something of fantasy.
Brooklyn Daily Eagle: "Mary MacMillan, whose first volume of short plays proved that she possessed unusual gifts as a dramatist, has justified the hopes of her friends in a second volume, 'More Short Plays,' which reveal the author as the possessor of a charming literary style coupled with a sure dramatic sense that never leads her idea astray.... In them all the reader will find a rich and delicate charm, a bountiful endowment of humor and wit, a penetrating knowledge of human nature, and a deft touch in the drawing of character. They are delicately and sympathetically done and their literary charm is undeniable."
Uniform with"Short Plays"
Net, $2.50
The contents are:"The Hour of Recognition""Great Scenes""The Festival of Bacchus""His Helpmate""Literature."
In his "Comedies of Words," Arthur Schnitzler, the great Austrian Dramatist, has penetrated to newer and profounder regions of human psychology. According to Schnitzler, the keenly compelling problems of earth are: the adjustment of a man to one woman, a woman to one man, the children to their parents, the artist to life, the individual to his most cherished beliefs, and how can we accomplish this adjustment when, try as we please, there is a destiny which sweeps our little plans away like helpless chessmen from the board? Since the creation of Anatol, that delightful toy philosopher, so popular in almost every theater of the world, the great Physician-Dramatist has pushed on both as World-Dramatist and reconnoiterer beyond the misty frontiers of man's conscious existence. He has attempted in an artistic way to get beneath what Freud calls the "Psychic Censor" which edits all our suppressed desires. Reading Schnitzler is like going to school to Life itself!
Bound uniform with the S & K Dramatic Series,
Net$2.50
The Contents Are:
Alice Rostetter's comedyThe Widow's VeilJames Oppenheim's poeticNightGeorge Cram Cook's and Susan Glaspell'sSuppressed DesiresEugene O'Neill's playBound East for CardiffEdna St. Vincent Millay'sAria de CapoRita Wellman'sString of the SamisenWilbur D. Steele's satireNot SmartFloyd Dell's comedyThe Angel IntrudesHutchin Hapgood's and Neith Boyce's playEnemiesPendleton King'sCocaine
Every author, with one exception, has a book or more to his credit. Several are at the top of their profession.
Rita Wellman, a Saturday Evening Post star, has had two or three plays on Broadway, and has a new novel, THE WINGS OF DESIRE.
Cook and Glaspell are well known—he for his novels and Miss Glaspell for novels and plays.
E. Millay is one of America's best minor poets. Steele, according to O'Brien, is America's best short-story writer.
Oppenheim has over a dozen novels, books of poems and essays to his credit.
O'Neill has a play on Broadway now, BEYOND THE HORIZON.
Hutch, Hapgood is author of the STORY OF A LOVER, published by Boni and Liveright anonymously.
8vo. Silk Cloth, Gilt Top
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This volume contains four One Act Plays by the inventor and director of the Portmanteau Theater. They are all included in the regular repertory of the Theater and the four contained in this volume comprise in themselves an evening's bill.
There is also an Introduction by Edward Hale Bierstadt on the Portmanteau Theater in theory and practice.
The book is illustrated by pictures taken from actual presentations of the plays.
The first play, the"Trimplet", deals with the search for a certain magic thing called a trimplet which can cure all the ills of whoever finds it. The search and the finding constitute the action of the piece.
Second play,"Six who Pass While the Lentils Boil", is perhaps the most popular in Mr. Walker's repertory. The story is of a Queen who, having stepped on the ring-toe of the King's great-aunt, is condemned to die before the clock strikes twelve. The Six who pass the pot in which boil the lentils are on their way to the execution.
Next comes"Nevertheless", which tells of a burglar who oddly enough reaches regeneration through two children and a dictionary.
And last of all is the"Medicine-Show", which is a character study situated on the banks of the Mississippi. One does not see either the Show or the Mississippi, but the characters are so all sufficient that one does not miss the others.
All of these plays are fanciful—symbolic if you like—but all of them have a very distinct raison d'être in themselves, quite apart from any ulterior meaning.
With Mr. Walker it is always "the story first," and herein he is at one with Lord Dunsany and others of his ilk. The plays have body, force, and beauty always; and if the reader desires to read in anything else surely that is his privilege.
Each play, and even the Theater itself has a prologue, and with the help of these one is enabled to pass from one charming tale to the next without a break in the continuity.
With five full-page illustrations on cameo paper.
12mo. Silk cloth
$2.50
The thorough success of the volume entitled"Portmanteau Plays"has encouraged the publication of a second series under the title"More Portmanteau Plays". This continuation carries on the work begun in the first book, and contains"The Lady of the Weeping Willow Tree", one of the finest and most effective pieces Stuart Walker has presented under his own name;"The Very Naked Boy", a slight, whimsical, and wholly delightful bit of foolery;"Jonathan Makes a Wish", a truly strong three-act work with an appeal of unusual vigor.
With Six full page illustrations on Cameo Paper.
12mo. Silk cloth
$2.00
The third volume of the Portmanteau Series includes three of Stuart Walker's most successful plays which are either adapted from or based on works by other authors. The first is the ever wonderful"Gammer Gurton's Needle", written some hundreds of years ago and now arranged for the use of the modern theater goer. Next comes,"The Birthday of the Infanta"from the poignant story of Oscar Wilde (used also by Alfred Noyes in one of his most effective poems), and last of all the widely popular"Seventeen"from the story of the same name by Booth Tarkington.
12mo. Silk cloth
Net, $2.50
TRANSCRIBER'S NOTES:1. Misprints in character names have been silently corrected.2. Punctuation has been normalized for the stage directions and the play listings in the Bibliography.3. A few typographical errors have also been corrected. They have been marked in the text withpopups. Position your mouse over the line to see an explanation.4. Other than the corrections listed above, printer's inconsistencies in spelling, punctuation, hyphenation, and ligature usage have been retained.
1. Misprints in character names have been silently corrected.
2. Punctuation has been normalized for the stage directions and the play listings in the Bibliography.
3. A few typographical errors have also been corrected. They have been marked in the text withpopups. Position your mouse over the line to see an explanation.
4. Other than the corrections listed above, printer's inconsistencies in spelling, punctuation, hyphenation, and ligature usage have been retained.