George Aiken

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_Aiken_(playwright)

George L. Aiken (December 19, 1830 – April 27, 1876) was a nineteenth-century American playwright and actor who is best known for writing the most popular of the numerous stage adaptations of Harriet Beecher Stowe's Uncle Tom's Cabin. http://utc.iath.virginia.edu/onstage/scripts/aikenhp.html

Aiken was a writer of dime novels before he turned to theatre. He became an actor in the troupe of his cousin, George C. Howard. In 1852, shortly after the publication of Stowe's Uncle Tom's Cabin, Aiken wrote his stage adaptation. It was performed by Howard's company, with Aiken playing the hero, George Harris. The play become a spectacular success. His other works include a dramatization of Ann S. Stephen's novel The Old Homestead. He retired from the stage in 1867.

http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GRid=6382784

George L. Aiken Memorial

Birth: Dec. 19, 1830 Boston Suffolk County Massachusetts, USA

Death: Apr. 27, 1876 Jersey City Hudson County New Jersey, USA

Playwright, Actor. He is best known for his dramatizing Harriet Beecher Stowe's anti-slavery novel "Uncle Tom's Cabin" for the theater. He acted in its first performance at Troy, New York on September 27, 1852, and made numerous appearances in the play in the pre-Civil War era.

Burial: Cain Cemetery Bay Minette Baldwin County Alabama, USA

Maintained by: Find A Grave Record added: Apr 30, 2002 Find A Grave Memorial# 6382784

Photo by: MC

Added to Geni by Janet Milburn 5/9/18

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Aiken, George L.

GEORGE L. AIKEN (1830-1876) On the stage he was natural, simple, affecting. OLIVER GOLDSMITH: Retaliation, line 101

George L. Aiken, an older brother of Albert W. Aiken, was, in his day, a very well-known and successful actor, playwright, and author. He was born in Boston, Massachusetts, December 19, 1830, and died of pneumonia, in Jersey City, New Jersey, April 27, 1876. He left school before he was fourteen and was employed in George A. Brewer's carpet warehouse, in Court Street, for three years. As a boy he was interested in theatricals, and with some companions of the same age, conducted an amateur theater at the corner of Charlestown and Medford streets and later at Haverhill Street, under the name of the "Spout Shop." Going on a visit to Providence, Rhode Island, where a cousin was manager of the Cleveland Hall Theatre, he obtained permission to act with the company for the six weeks he was there. Here was his first professional appearance, some time in June, 1849, as "Ferdinand," in "Six Degrees of Crime."

From Providence, he went to the "Lyceum" in Boston for a short time, then strolled in New Bedford. He next secured an engagement for "General Utility" at the Boston Museum. That was his first engagement in a first-class theater and his career as an actor commenced.

His greatest success was as a playwright in his dramatization of Harriet Beecher Stowe's "Uncle Tom's Cabin." In this he himself took the dual roles of George Shelby and George Harris in the opening at the Troy Museum, Troy, New York, September 27, 1852. After a run of one hundred nights, it was taken to Purdy's National Theatre, New York City, July 18, 1853, where it ran 325 nights. He dramatized Sylvanus Cobb's "The Gun Maker of Moscow" in 1856-57. His next success was his dramatization of Mrs. Ann S. Stephens' "Old Homestead," which opened November 3, 1856, and in which he played the leading part for some time. The play was rewritten and revived in 1887 by Denman Thompson, and was a continual success for some forty years. Aiken was dramatist at Barnum's Museum, New York, in 1859, but was again acting in Philadelphia, in the Arch Street Theatre, in 1860. In 1861 he was again with Barnum's Museum, and in April, 1862, he became associate manager of the Troy Theatre, Troy, New York. In 1871 he retired to his home in Brooklyn,(1) after having followed the stage for twenty-two years with very little intermission, and during that time he appeared in almost every city in the Union that had a stage, and in a great many that had not, often playing in dining rooms of hotels, schoolhouses, and vestries of churches. He wrote and acted in over seventy dramatic productions.

After his retirement, he continued writing dramas and novels, under his own name and under the pseudonym "Bernard Clyde" until his death. The name "Bernard Clyde" was taken from his novel of the same name, which was published as a serial in The Western World, beginning in No. 6, December, 1870. He also used the pseudonym †"C. Leon Meredith, given as a pen name of George Aiken by George Beck, was actually the pen name of Dr. George E. Blakelee. (Albert Johannsen, The Nickel Library; a Bibliography, Fall River, Mass., 1959, 39.)"

Besides his novels for Beadle, Aiken also wrote, among many other stories: "The Household Skeleton," 1865; "Cynthia, the Pearl of the Points," 1867; "The Doom of Deville; or, The Maiden's Vow," 1859; "The Emerald Ring," 1858; and "Josie; or, Was He a Woman?" 1870. His version of "Uncle Tom's Cabin" was published by Samuel French, in New York, and also as No. 342, Dick's Standard Plays.

REFERENCES: T. Allston Brown, A History of the New York Stage from the First Performance in 1732 to 1901, New York, 1903; Ibid., A History of the American Stage, New York, 1870; F. C. Wemyss, Chronology of the American Stage, 1852; Scribner's Dict. Amer. Biog., I, 1928, 127-28; Moses, Representative Plays of American Dramatists from 1765 to the Present Day, II, 605; George L. Aiken, "Leaves from an Actor's Life," Saturday Star Journal, VI, 1875, No. 278 et. seq.; Kunitz and Haycraft, American Authors, New York, 1938, 15.

Under his own name were published:

Saturday Journal. Nos. 252, 278, 309 Pocket Novels. No. 92 Dime Library. No. 102 Half-Dime Library. No. 261 Boy's Library (octavo). No. 137 Pocket Library. Nos. 224, 447

Under the pen name "Bernard Clyde" was published:

Starr's American Novels. No. 128

Notes

1 New York City Directories, 1858-59 and 1859-60 list him at 61 Elm Street. Brooklyn City Directory 1869—70 gives his address as Kosciusko near Broadway. In 1872—74 he was at 613 Kosciusko. Jersey City Directory for 1876 lists him as an author living at Communipaw Ave. near West Side Ave.

Added to Geni by Janet Milburn 5/9/18