Excerpt from Louisa Drew's Autobiographical Sketch of Mrs. John Drew (1899)

Excerpt from Louisa Drew's Autobiographical Sketch of Mrs. John Drew (1899)

Cushman, Charlotte Saunders, 1816-1876

Actors and Actresses--US American

Fame

Gender Norms

Reputation

Praise

The autobiography describes Cushman as Maeder's pupil and displays two photographs of Cushman performing as Romeo and as Mrs. Haller. The autobiography compares Madame Celeste's farewell performances to those of Cushman.
The autobiography was published with an introduction by Drew's son.

Credit

Hathi Trust

Drew, Louisa, 1820-1897

C. Scribner's Sons

1899

Reference

"Charlotte Saunders Cushman, descendant of the Puritan Cushmans of Mayflower days, fought down the illsuccess attending her first essay in opera, and after years of struggling as a poorly paid stock actress at the Bowery and Park Theatres, by sheer merit rose to the position of the Queen of Tragedy, and maintained it for twenty years. From 1845 to 1849, and again from 1852 to 1857, she was so recognized in England and divided the applause with London on her first visit. Her forcible and almost masculine manner and face prevented success in comedy, but made her Meg Merrilies, Nancy Sykes, and Helen McGregor, as well as Lady Macbeth, Alicia, Queen Catherine, and Bianca, world-renowned. In heavy tragedy and melodrama no one has filled her place. She was acceptable as Romeo, which she often played, and passable as Hamlet, Wohey, and even Claude Melnotte. During the war she performed several times for the sanitary commissions, and gave liberally of her large fortune. She contented herself with giving readings, which were uniformly successful, from 1870 to 1875, and died, in her native city of Boston, February 18, 1876, in her sixtieth year."
(185-186)

NYC, NY, USA

40.7127281

-74.0060152

Hathi Trust, http://hdl.handle.net/2027/loc.ark:/13960/t50g4z586, accessed Feb 19, 2020