George Aiken (playwright)
George Aiken | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Born | December 19, 1830 |
| Died | April 27, 1876 (aged 45) |
Resting place | Mount Auburn Cemetery[1] Cambridge, Massachusetts |
| Occupation | Stage actor |
George L. Aiken (December 19, 1830 – April 27, 1876) was an American playwright and actor best known for writing the most popular of the numerous stage adaptations of Harriet Beecher Stowe's Uncle Tom's Cabin.
Life and career
[edit]George Aiken was born in Boston, Massachusetts, on December 19, 1830.[2] He was the brother of actor and playwright Albert W. Aiken.[3] Both he and his brother wrote dime novels for Beadle and Adams with the plots of George's work centering on the American frontier or the American stage.[3] After the publication of several of his stories he began a career in theater;[2] making his stage debut at the age of 18.[4] He worked professionally as an actor in theaters in Rhode Island, New York, and Massachusetts.[4]
In 1852 Aiken was commissioned by his cousin, the actor George C. Howard, to adapt Harriet Beecher Stowe's novel Uncle Tom's Cabin for the stage.[5] Stowe's novel had been published earlier that same year.[6] It was performed by Howard's company, with Aiken playing the hero George Harris.[4] The play became a spectacular success, touring for 50 years[4] and inspiring more than 100 knock-off adaptations by other creatives.[7]
Aiken continued to write but never again matched the success of Uncle Tom's Cabin.[4] His other plays include a dramatization of Ann S. Stephens's novel The Old Homestead (1856), a dramatization of Stowe's A Key to Uncle Tom's Cabin, and Josie, or Was He a Woman? (1870).[8] He also wrote later dime novels like The Household Skeleton (1865),[8] Chevalier, the French Jack Sheppard (1868) and A New York Boy Among the Indians (1872).[4] He retired from acting in 1862 and then settled in Brooklyn.[8]
Aiken's original manuscripts for Uncle Tom's Cabin were passed through the family along with other memorabilia from Howard's company. The family placed the collection at the Harry Ransom Center in 1963.[9]
References
[edit]Citations
[edit]- ↑ "Map | Mount Auburn Cemetery". Mountauburn.org. Retrieved 2012-09-01.
- 1 2 Kabatchnik 2017, p. 267.
- 1 2 Cox 2000, p. 3.
- 1 2 3 4 5 6 Bryer & Hartig 2010, p. 15.
- ↑ Bernstein 2011, p. 49.
- ↑ Kabatchnik 2017, pp. 257–258.
- ↑ Bernstein 2011, p. 51.
- 1 2 3 Frick 2016, p. 41.
- ↑ "George C. (George Cunnibell) Howard and Family: An Inventory of Their Collection at the Harry Ransom Center". norman.hrc.utexas.edu. Retrieved 2017-03-15.
Bibliography
[edit]- Bernstein, Robin (2011). Racial Innocence: Performing American Childhood from Slavery to Civil Rights. New York University Press. ISBN 978-0-8147-8708-3.
- Bryer, Jackson R.; Hartig, Mary C. (2010). The Facts on File Companion to American Drama. Facts On File. ISBN 9781438129662.
- Cox, J. Randolph (2000). The Dime Novel Companion: A Source Book. ABC-CLIO. ISBN 9780313095368.
- Frick, John W. (2016). Uncle Tom's Cabin on the American Stage and Screen. Palgrave Macmillan. ISBN 9781137566454.
- Kabatchnik, Amnon (2017). Blood on the Stage, 1800 to 1900: Milestone Plays of Murder, Mystery, and Mayhem. Rowman & Littlefield Publishers. ISBN 9781538106181.
External links
[edit]
- George Aiken at the Internet Broadway Database
- Uncle Tom's Cabin Archived 2009-01-22 at the Wayback Machine Play Text of Uncle Tom's Cabin
- George C. Howard and Family Collection at the Harry Ransom Center, University of Texas at Austin
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