Background

James A. Herne, original name James Ahearn, was born on February 1, 1839, in Cohoes, New York.

Career

He had an early interest in the theater and began a successful career as an actor at the age of twenty, but it is for his plays that he is best known.

After making several adaptations, he collaborated with David Belasco in writing Hearts of Oak, which was produced in New York in 1880 after opening in San Francisco in the preceding year under the title Chums; this play, which has an Enoch Arden plot presented in terms of American seafaring life, ran for six seasons.

The Minute-Men of 1774-1775 (1886) recounts an improbable Revolutionary War story of long-lost children. Drifting Apart (1888) is a hoax drama in that the disasters depicted in it turn out to be a dream. In Margaret Fleming (1890) Herne turned to a more serious social theme and wrote a realistic characterization of a woman who shelters her husband's illegitimate child; the manuscript of this play was destroyed by fire, but it was rewritten from memory by Mrs. Herne, who acted in the title role.

Another realistic character study is Shore Acres, which opened in New York in 1893 after productions in the preceding year in Chicago under the titles Shore Acres Subdivision and Uncle Nort. The story of an antislavery planter who helps the North is told in The Reverend Griffith Davenport (1899); only Act IV of this play survives in its entirety. Herne's last play, Sag Harbor (produced in Boston in 1899 and in New York in 1900), was a revision of Hearts of Oak.

Achievements

• He is considered by some critics to be the "American Ibsen", and his controversial play Margaret Fleming is often credited with having begun modern drama in America. Herne was a Georgist and wrote Shore Acres to promote the political economy of Henry George.

Works

More photos

• book

  • Margaret Fleming: (1890)

    (Book by Herne, James A.)

  • Shore acres,: And other plays,

    (James A. Herne (1839-1901) is considered by some critics ...)

  • Shore Acres and Other Plays

    (James A. Herne (1839-1901) is considered by some critics ...)

  • INSECTS, BIRDS, BEASTS, AND HUMANS
  • Sag Harbor

References

• James A. Herne: Rise of Realism in the American Drama (University of Maine Studies, Second Series : No 80)
• James A. Herne: The American Ibsen