Sarah Bernhardt, London, his own acting―Edwin Booth commented on these and hundreds of other subjects in letters to William Winter, friend of twenty years and drama critic for the New York Tribune. Since he wrote neither autobiography nor diary, the letters constitute the fullest and most detailed record of Booth's career between 1869 and 1890, and arc a new and significant source of information about the actor.
The 125 letters which Daniel Watermeier has selected and arranged in this volume are fully annotated; each is preceded by a headnote which provides an introduction to its content and narrative continuity from one letter to the next. Mr. Watermeier's introduction includes biographical sketches of Edwin Booth and William Winter and sets the context of their friendship.
With few exceptions, the Booth-Winter letters have not hitherto been made public. They represent a major addition to studies of Edwin Booth and to the history of the American theater.
Originally published in 1971.
The Princeton Legacy Library uses the latest print-on-demand technology to again make available previously out-of-print books from the distinguished backlist of Princeton University Press. These editions preserve the original texts of these important books while presenting them in durable paperback and hardcover editions. The goal of the Princeton Legacy Library is to vastly increase access to the rich scholarly heritage found in the thousands of books published by Princeton University Press since its founding in 1905.
Between Actor and Critic
Selected Letters of Edwin Booth and William Winter
By Daniel J. WatermeierPRINCETON UNIVERSITY PRESS
Copyright © 1971 Princeton University Press
All rights reserved.
ISBN: 978-0-691-06193-1Contents
List of Illustrations, vi,
Preface, vii,
Introduction, 3,
I. Booth's Theatre: 1869-1875, 18,
II. American Tours: 1875-1877, 51,
III. The Prompt Books: 1877-1879, 84,
IV. American Tours: 1879-1880, 132,
V. England: 1880-1881, 155,
VI. The American Tour: 1881-1882, 190,
VII. England: 1882, 208,
VIII. Germany and Austria: 1883, 226,
IX. American Tours: 1883-1886, 250,
X. The Booth-Barrett Tours: 1886-1890, 279,
Biographical Note, 307,
Selected Bibliography, 310,
Index, 317,
CHAPTER 1
Booth's Theatre
1869-1875
When the personal acquaintance of Edwin Booth and William Winter began is uncertain. Winter saw Booth act for the first time on April 20, 1857, at the Boston Theatre as Sir Giles Overreach in Philip Massinger's A New Way to Pay Old Debts. They probably met when Booth returned to Boston the next year. Booth's earliest extant letter to Winter is the following hastily written cryptic note, possibly in reference to a personal dresser and a hotel.
1. Baltimore, July 29, 1859
Thanks for your advice — I have made the first offer — think it reasonable — hope he'll take it — as I must stay at the finest hotels his board would be heavy to have him with me.
Can't you give me some items about the 'Royal'?
Between this letter and the next a decade passed. But Booth and Winter probably met occasionally during this period if they did not correspond. They were undoubtedly acquainted. They shared mutual friends and Mrs. Winter had played Katherine to Booth's Petruchio at the Winter Garden in 1866 (see Letter 3, fn. 7). In a letter to Jervis McEntee, late in 1868, however, Booth mentions that Winter is among the critics "who do not know me personally."
This same letter to McEntee suggests some of the circumstances which may have motivated Booth to write Winter once again. Booth asked McEntee to ask Launt Thompson, who lived in the same studio building, to contact Winter and explain to him the "villainy of that d — d rascal Stuart." This Stuart was William Stuart, Booth's former friend and partner at the Winter Garden, who, after Booth terminated their partnership, had returned to his former career as a "yellow" journalist and was now attacking Booth in the press as he had once attacked Edwin Forrest. To McEntee Booth wrote: "Stuart is black at the core and will kill himself in time, but he can spit venom yet and should be hanged." Booth was afraid that Stuart would damage his reputation with the more respectable New York critics, among whom, he wrote, "Winter ranks first." With his new theatre about to open Booth desperately desired to retain the good opinion of these critics not because, as he wrote, "I fear their ill — but my good will towards them demands it."
In this context of magnanimous good will, Booth wrote to Winter a few days after the opening of Booth's Theatre, February 3, 1869. At first it seems an astonishing letter from an actor to a critic. Booth is offering Winter financial assistance so that he can become a member of the Century Club! Booth was a member of the club and Winter had been elected in 1866, but had been unable to afford the $100 initiation fee and the $36 annual dues, so that he had never been officially installed.
Winter's integrity as a critic and as a man was n
