Francis Alexander Durivage

Background

Francis Alexander Durivage was born in 1814 in Boston, Massachusetts, United States. He was the son of Francis and Lucy (Everett) Durivage and a nephew of Edward Everett.

Career

While there Durivage became interested in the Delsarte system of stage procedure and calisthenics, and meeting Steele MacKaye, who was then conducting a class at Delsarte’s house, joined forces with him in disseminating Delsarte’s doctrines.

When Durivage returned to America he became an active member of a little group of Delsartcan enthusiasts who helped to spread the gospel of their master. He signed an article on Delsarte in the Atlantic Monthly for May 1871 which he wrote in collaboration with MacKaye. Durivage was the author of several plays, none of which was successful, not even Monaldi, another of his collaborations with MacKaye. It was produced at the St. James Theatre in New York on January 8, 1872, with MacKaye himself acting the principal character, its chief object being to exemplify the practical stage theories of the Delsarte system. His literary work was varied and versatile, but without any enduring quality.

Among his books were a translation of Lamartine’s History of the Revolution of 1848 (1849), and in collaboration with George P. Burnham, Stray Subjects Arrested and Bound Over, being the Fugitive Offspring of the Old Un and the Young Un that have been Lying Around Loose, and are now tied up for Fast Keeping (1848). He also compiled a Popular Cyclopedia of History (1845) and Life Scenes from the World Around Us (1853).

Achievements

• Durivage was a co-editor of Ballou’s Pictorial.

Works

More photos

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  • The Glenaloon and Other Poems

    (The Glenaloon and Other Poems is an unchanged, high-quali...)

  • The Submarine Boys and the Middies: The Prize Detail at Annapolis

    (This is a pre-1923 historical reproduction that was curat...)

  • The Three Brides, Love in a Cottage and Other Tales
  • Life Scenes: sketched in light and shadow from the world around us. With illustrations, by S. W. Rowse.

Personality

Durivage was a man of many friendships and activities, but the memorials of his personality and the records of his work are widely scattered through many obscure and well-high forgotten sources.

He is referred to by William Winter as one of those of his “early friends in the literary vocation among whom the custom of perfectly candid criticism prevailed. ”

Connections

Durivage married Almira Alderworth.

Father:

Francis Durivage

Mother:

Lucy (Everett) Durivage

Spouse:

Almira Alderworth

Uncle:

Edward Everett

Friend:

William Winter