Background
George Lemul Aiken was born on December 19, 1830 in Boston, Massachusetts, United States. He was the son of Samuel C. Aiken, an actor, and Susan Augusta Wyatt.
(Book is new except for a small number entered on the cove...)
Book is new except for a small number entered on the cover, so I suppose we should consider book as used, but like new
https://www.amazon.com/Harriet-Beecher-Stowes-Uncle-Cabin/dp/0573602972?SubscriptionId=AKIAJRRWTH346WSPOAFQ&tag=prabook-20&linkCode=sp1&camp=2025&creative=165953&creativeASIN=0573602972
George Lemul Aiken was born on December 19, 1830 in Boston, Massachusetts, United States. He was the son of Samuel C. Aiken, an actor, and Susan Augusta Wyatt.
He left school before he was fourteen.
Aiken made his début on the stage as Ferdinand in The Six Degrees of Crime in Providence, Rhode Island, in June 1848. His Orion, the Gold Beater, a dramatization of the novel, was produced at the National Theatre, New York, January 15, 1851. A manuscript exists in the Players Club, New York.
His chief claim to remembrance, however, is his dramatization of Mrs. Stowe's Uncle Tom's Cabin. After more than one unsuccessful attempt had been made by other hands, Aiken wrote his play at the suggestion of George C. Howard, manager of the Museum, Troy, New York, who believed that the characters of Eva and Topsy were suited to the talents of his daughter, Cordelia, and his wife, who was Aiken's cousin. Aiken acted the dual parts of George Shelby and of George Harris, the mulatto, in his own version, which opened at the Troy Museum, September 27, 1852, ran 100 nights, and was taken to Purdy's National Theatre, New York, July 18, 1853, where it was performed 325 consecutive times. This version was played in Philadelphia in 1853-1854, in Detroit in 1854, and in Chicago in 1858. When the play was revived on November 24, 1924, at the Triangle Theatre, New York, the production was based on Aiken's version. Aiken followed the novel closely in his plot, beginning in Kentucky, then taking Uncle Tom to New Orleans and finally to his death at Legree's plantation. All the sentimental features of the novel are emphasized, and little Eva is taken almost bodily to a better world. Yet poor as the play is from a dramatic standpoint, it was one of the most potent forces in the abolition movement.
According to H. P. Phelps, Aiken dramatized a number of stories from the Ledger, including "The Gun Maker of Moscow" and "The Mystic Bride, " during the season of 1856-1857. He also continued to write for the National or Chatham Theatre in New York. On November 3, 1856, his play of The Old Homestead, a dramatization of Ann S. Stephens's novel, was performed, and on May 18, 1858, The Emerald Ring. The Doom of Deville; or The Maiden's Vow had its production at Barnum's Museum, New York, November 28, 1859. A play, Josie; or, Was He a Woman? was copyrighted in 1870, by title. To Aiken have also been attributed stories, The Household Skeleton (1865) and Cynthia, The Pearl of the Points, a tale of New York (1867), Chevalier, the French Jack Sheppard (1868), and A New York Boy among the Indians (1872).
He was acting in Philadelphia in 1860 at the Arch Street Theatre, and in 1859 and again in 1861 was house dramatist at Barnum's Museum in New York. In 1862 he was associate manager of the Troy Theatre.
Aiken retired from the stage in 1867 but continued writing fiction and making dramatizations, living in Brooklyn, New York, until 1875.
He died in Jersey City, New Jersey in 1876.
(Book is new except for a small number entered on the cove...)
There is no record of his family; presumably, he never married.