The Brief Career of Eliza Poe
Author: Geddeth Smith
Publisher: Fairleigh Dickinson Univ Press
Published: 1988
Total Pages: 188
ISBN-13: 9780838633175
DOWNLOAD EBOOKWhen the actress Eliza Poe--mother of Edgar Allen Poe--died at age 24 in Richmond, Virginia, she had played with every important theatrical company in the country. Compared to actors today, her career is truly extraordinary. She played nearly 300 parts--in plays by Shakespeare and Sheridan--a long line of heroines in 18th century sentimental comedies, comic operas, farces, and poetic tragedies whose titles are meaningless now, though they contain brilliant language and canny theatricality, requiring actors of discipline and skill to present successfully. Eliza left no personal documents, but available public documents relating to her professional life tell the vivid story of a gifted young actress serving her apprenticeship in the superior repertory system of late 18th and early 19th century America. Eliza was a young artist who had established a national reputation with her co-workers and the public, just embarking on what would have been her most important work at the time of her tragically early death.
