MSS255_B79_022-01 |
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Object Description
| Title | [Correspondence from Edwin Forrest] |
| Date | 1845-07-03 |
| Creator | Forrest, Edwin |
| Artistic roles | Edwin Forrest (Actor) |
| Genre | Tragedy |
| Theme | Dynasties; Shakespeare |
| Places | London (United Kingdom) |
| Item description | Correspondence from American actor Edwin Forrest (1806-1872) to his friend James Lawson dated July 3rd, 1845. The letter is written in ink on one large piece of white paper and folded in half to make four sides. The first three pages contain writing. The letter was then folded into a small rectangle and sealed with wax, the fourth page of the document then serving as the address side. The letter was sent on the July 4th steamer from London to New York. |
| Object narrative | Edwin Forrest (1806-1872) was the first internationally known and acclaimed American actor. Born to Scottish and German descendants, he made his stage debut in 1820. Touring at first as an actor in the West (Ohio and Kentucky), within six years he was performing in New York and building his reputation as the most powerful physical and vocal actor America had ever seen. He was popular for heroic and physical tragic roles such as Othello, King Lear, Virginius, and Metamora, and often brought audiences to their feet with his passionate, energetic, and intense portrayals. He reached his zenith in the late 1830s and 1840s as he toured to England and France, developing a professional rivalry with British actor William Macready, who played the same roles. Both men were known for jealousy and having virile tempers, however, and the feud became personal in the 1840s leading up to Forrest's second tour to England in 1845. Friends in the press and other supporters of both men criticized the other's performances in print, especially after Forrest publicly hissed Macready's performance of Hamlet in Edinburgh in February. Forrest also believed Macready was behind his inability to procure a performance contract in Paris that year. Regardless of this, both men were having trouble getting work in England, as this letter testifies. Written in July of 1845, Forrest had taken a back seat earlier in the year to another American performer, actress Charlotte Cushman. Humiliated, he had ceased performing until her engagement was complete. The letter, to Forrest's close friend, James Lawson in New York, reads: London July 3rd 1845 My dear Lawson, I with much pleasure acknowledge the receipt of your letter of 11th ulto. containing the a/c [account]. All right. If my name can be of any service to you with regard to raising the funds necessary to the completion you may command it. As to making money in the provinces of England in a theatrical way, I fear that is quite impossible. Macready who is their best actor for the want of a better, does nothing in the country, he has performed but two engts. [engagements] since his return to Europe that have been profitable to the managers, and in despair he has applied to Simpson of the Park, to return again to America. Mr. & Mrs. Kean visit the U S again this fall for the same reason, because in their own country they fail entirely to command the public attention. As yet I have not concluded my arrangement with the Parisian for the month of October next, but hope to do so in the course of a week or two, and if I fail in this matter I shall in all likelihood enlist under the banner of Mr. Mitchell who takes an English company to Paris again this coming winter. I have a project afoot to take an English corps dramatique to St. Petersburgh [sic] next winter and if the Emperor's countenance and support can be obtained I have no doubt the scheme will prove immensely profitable. They have never had the English Drama performed in St. Petersburgh [sic] and it would be to say the least of it, a great novelty. I wish you would write to S. B. Smith, remembering me most kindly to him and ask him for an a/c [account] of my affairs and whatever balance of money he may have in my favour. The money you can retain the a/c pray send to me. Mr. Henry Inman did not make for me the copies of the pictures, or rather the portrait of Rachel, and a copy of Lalma's picture which he proposed to do before he left America. He did not visit Paris and so the thing was impossible. I herein enclose you his receipt for the advanced hundred dollars which sum he will pay to you in America. I have been invited to perform in several of the provincial tours but in as much I hear so wretched an account of them that I do not think it worth while to make the experiment. Even Miss Cushman whom the newspapers have so bespattered with praise, receives but seven pounds a night at the Princess Theatre and the manager says he loses by that. The letter sent you in the Boston Post was mine. Willis I am happy to say is quite recovered from his late alarming illness. Wikoff arrived here a few days since with kindest remembrances to Mrs. Lawson. I am yours as ever, Edwin Forrest A letter from Paris says your porcelain will be sent to New York in a short time. The letter also contains the original seal and address of James Lawson Esq. at 46 Wall Street and indicates that the letter is for the steamer of July 4th. The letter also contains an afterthought written on a sidebar about a Mr. Bryant leaving London for a tour in the country. |
| Type | Text |
| Original format | Correspondence |
| Original publisher | [Place of publication not identified] : [publisher not identified] |
| Language | en |
| Contributing institution | Martha Blakeney Hodges Special Collections and University Archives, UNCG University Libraries |
| Source collection | MSS255 Robert C. Hansen Performing Arts Collection |
| Series/grouping | 6.1: Correspondence and Autographs -- Correspondence |
| Box | 79 |
| Finding aid link | http://library.uncg.edu/info/depts/scua/collections/manuscripts/ead/mss255.xml |
| Preferred citation | [Identification of item], Robert C. Hansen Performing Arts Collection, 1753-2006 (MSS255), Martha Blakeney Hodges Special Collections and University Archives and Manuscripts, University of North Carolina at Greensboro, NC, USA. |
| Rights statement | http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/NoC-US/1.0/ |
| Additional rights information | NO COPYRIGHT - UNITED STATES. This item has been determined to be free of copyright restrictions in the United States. The user is responsible for determing actual copyright status for any reuse of the material. |
| Object ID | MSS255.B79.022 |
| Digital publisher | The University of North Carolina at Greensboro, University Libraries, PO Box 26170, Greensboro NC 27402-6170, 336.334.5304 |
| OCLC number | 872280865 |
Page/Item Description
| Title | MSS255_B79_022-01 |
| Language | English |
| Contributing institution | Martha Blakeney Hodges Special Collections and University Archives, UNCG University Libraries |
| Finding aid link | http://library.uncg.edu/info/depts/scua/collections/manuscripts/ead/mss255.xml |
| Preferred citation | [Identification of item], Robert C. Hansen Performing Arts Collection, 1753-2006 (MSS255), Martha Blakeney Hodges Special Collections and University Archives and Manuscripts, University of North Carolina at Greensboro, NC, USA. |
