Theatre, New York, October 9, 1882. A very successful comedy, One of Our Girls, the scene of which is laid in France, was first played at the Lyceum Theatre, New York, November 10, 1885. Met by Chance, a romantic play, performed at the Lyceum Theatre, New York, January 11, 1887, was not a success, but on September 26 of the same year The Henrietta began its career at the Union Square Theatre. This is a dramatization of the motives that move Wall Street and in it Mr. William H. Crane and Mr. Stuart Robson achieved one of the great successes of their joint careers. It has been revived by Mr. Crane who is still playing in a revision of it. Baron Rudolf, written originally in 1881, was played in New York, October 25, 1887. Shenandoah came in 1888 and Aristocracy, a comedy in which social types, both national and international, are contrasted was put on first at Palmer's Theatre, New York, November 14, 1892. Peter Stuyvesant, an historical comedy, written in collaboration with Mr. Brander Matthews, and played at Wallack's Theatre, New York, October 2, 1899, was the last play of Mr. Howard's to be performed. Knave and Queen and Kate, the latter a clever international play, have not been performed. Mr. Howard died at Avon, New Jersey, August 4, 1908.
Shenandoah, which he wrote at the height of his career, was first put on at the Boston Museum on November 19, 1888. It was based upon an earlier work which Mr. Howard had produced in Louisville, Kentucky, about twenty years before and at its first tryout in Boston it was not a success. After revision, however, it was brought out at the Star Theatre, New York, September 9, 1889, and ran in New York, during the entire season. It has proved to be the most popular of Mr. Howard's plays.
Saratoga (1870), and Young Mrs. Winthrop (1882), have been published by Samuel French. Kate was published in 1906 by Harper and Brothers. The Henrietta has been published in England by French, but in this country has been only privately printed. The same is true of Old Love Letters, The Banker's Daughter, Shenandoah and Aristocracy. The present text of Shenandoah is based on the privately printed edition prepared by Mr. Howard. It was furnished the editor by Samuel French through the courtesy of the Society of American Dramatists and Composers.
For biography of Mr. Howard, see the volume In Memoriam—Bronson Howard, published by the American Dramatists Club, New York, 1910. This contains a biography by H. P. Mawson, an appreciation by Brander Matthews, The Autobiography of a Play by Bronson Howard and a list of the plays with the original casts. The Autobiography of a Play has been reprinted with an introduction by Augustus Thomas in the Publications of the Dramatic Museum of Columbia University, New York, 1915. See also Plays of the Present, ed. by J. B. Clapp and E. F. Edgett, Pub. of the Dunlap Society, New York, 1902, and The American Dramatist, Montrose J. Moses, New York, 1911.
