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Though previously ignored as the nation's literary stepchild, the country's early drama emerges in American Drama from the Colonial Period through World War I as a dynamic cultural institution in which the social, political, economic, and artistic issues of the moment found representation for diverse, often contentious audiences. Suggesting the need to reexamine these neglected works, Gary A. Richardson argues that a more contemporary critical perspective results in a greater understanding of these plays' impact upon their original audiences, a clearer sense of the achievements of their authors, and the recovery of a long-lost segment of America's heritage. The volume moves chronologically through the nation's dramatic history, balancing observations about formal, aesthetic, and theatrical concerns with an examination of the influence of broad cultural forces upon the direction of the drama. Beginning with theater and drama's emergence in the colonial period, Richardson explores drama's role in the American,Revolution and, later, the nationalistic efforts of William Dunlap and James Nelson Barker to create a uniquely American drama. He continues by counterpointing the romantic configurations of William Howard Payne, Robert Montgomery Bird, and George Henry Boker with the work of writers such as James Kirke Paulding, John Augustus Stone, Joseph S. Jones, and George Aiken, who developed distinctly American character types and themes specifically designed to appeal to a popular audience. Richardson next highlights the complex cultural business of the melodramas of Dion Boucicault, Augustin Daly, David Belasco, Joaquin Miller, and Bronson Howard and the fitful emergence of a realistic dramain the plays of William Dean Howells, Steele MacKaye, James A. Herne, and William Gillette. He ends by examining the turn-of-the century works of Langdon Mitchell, Clyde Fitch, William Vaughn Moody, Edward Sheldon, Rachel C

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Library Journal Review

This critical survey examines early American stage productions. While the book covers some familiar ground, it soon enters into an analysis which contends that some of these plays deserve closer attention than they have been afforded. Richardson examines sociopolitical connections that demonstrate the specifically American nature of works that have long been dismissed as merely European-derived imitations. Covering some ground treated recently by Bruce McConachie in Melodramatic Formations: American Theatre and Society, 1820-1870 ( LJ 5/15/92), Richardson connects American theater to the previous tradition in most accessible fashion. The book is complemented by a useful chronology and excellent bibliography. Recommended for scholarly collections.-- Thomas E. Luddy, Salem State Coll., Mass. (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.

CHOICE Review

A well-researched and well-written critical history of America's developing drama, beginning with the Colonial period and moving through the varied experiences of a new and self-conscious nation. It is a good answer to critics who take American drama seriously only when O'Neill arrives on the scene. The study is well set historically, and well-selected literary examples abound. The strongest chapters are those on melodrama and on the development of realism. There is an excellent discussion of often overlooked dramatic writings by William Dean Howells. Richardson is to be congratulated on the inclusion of Rachel Crothers and Susan Glaspell, but he missed an important opportunity when he left out Angelina Weld Grimk'e (1880-1958), an African American writer whose play "Rachel" was produced in 1916. Had he included in his bibliography Black Theater U.S.A., Forty-Five Plays by Black Americans, 1847-1974, ed. by James V. Hatch (CH, Nov'74), he might have remembered both Grimk'e and William Wells Brown, whose 1858 play "The Escape" belongs in the chapter on slavery plays. Otherwise, the selected bibliography is fine, as are notes. The few illustrations are well chosen. There is an excellent chronology of current events and major play titles from 1665 to 1917. Recommended for general and academic libraries at all levels. D. E. Abramson; emerita, University of Massachusetts at Amherst