The articles that form this volume are compiled from the pages of the New York Clipper. Covering the three decades of the 1860s through 1880s, they convey a naive sentiment regarding the theatre of that day, self-conscious and protective, sensitive toward outside pressures and puritanical abuses, and self-critical of personal behavior within the little world of theatrical troupes. Here are marvelous first-hand accounts of the major theatres and players of the nineteenth-century American stage, compiled by Dr. William L. Slout, one of the best-known theatrical and circus historians of our time. Complete with reproductions of numerous contemporaneous illustrations, plus a comperhensive index."