(This book was originally published prior to 1923, and rep...)
This book was originally published prior to 1923, and represents a reproduction of an important historical work, maintaining the same format as the original work. While some publishers have opted to apply OCR (optical character recognition) technology to the process, we believe this leads to sub-optimal results (frequent typographical errors, strange characters and confusing formatting) and does not adequately preserve the historical character of the original artifact. We believe this work is culturally important in its original archival form. While we strive to adequately clean and digitally enhance the original work, there are occasionally instances where imperfections such as blurred or missing pages, poor pictures or errant marks may have been introduced due to either the quality of the original work or the scanning process itself. Despite these occasional imperfections, we have brought it back into print as part of our ongoing global book preservation commitment, providing customers with access to the best possible historical reprints. We appreciate your understanding of these occasional imperfections, and sincerely hope you enjoy seeing the book in a format as close as possible to that intended by the original publisher.
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Joseph Stevens was born on September 28, 1809 in Boston, Massachusetts, United States, in a house on land now occupied by the Wilbur Theatre. He was the son of Abraham and Mary (Stevens) Jones. His father was a sea captain, and his death at the hands of savages while on one of his voyages left the boy an orphan when he was ten years old.
Jones received an elementary education in the Boston public schools, but was obliged to go to work at an early age.
In 1843 he received the degree of M. D. from the Harvard Medical School.
His interest in amateur theatricals leading him eventually into the profession that he served through many years as actor, manager, and dramatist. His début on the stage was made in Providence, at the age of eighteen, as Crack, a low-comedy character in Knight's once familiar play, The Turnpike Gate. He soon returned to Boston and almost immediately became influential in the theatrical life of that city, with which he was exclusively identified throughout his entire life.
He acted a varied line of characters successively at the Tremont, the Warren, and the National theatres, also serving at the last-mentioned house as financial adviser, stage manager, and playwright. During this entire period he was writing plays, mainly of an ephemeral nature. In 1839 he succeeded Thomas Barry as lessee and manager of the Tremont Theatre, but with such little financial success that at the close of the season of 1840-41 he relinquished his lease.
For some years he had been studying medicine, and in pursuance of his plan to become a practising physician he retired from the stage, making his final appearance in the character of the Mock Duke in John Tobin's comedy, The Honeymoon.
He continued to write plays, however, until shortly before his death: a conservative estimate credits him with one hundred and fifty. His most famous play was The Silver Spoon, or Our Own Folks, the sub-title of which was later changed to The Member from Cranberry Centre, which was produced at the Boston Museum February 16, 1852, and in which William Warren became famous as Jefferson Scattering Batkins, the representative in the Massachusetts General Court who was "agin the Boston click. " It was revived season after season for many years.
Among his early plays were The Carpenter of Rouen, Moll Pitcher, and The Green Mountain Boy, but the comedy that became most familiar to the American public outside of Boston was The People's Lawyer, in which John E. Owens starred for many years as Solon Shingle. His most popular occasional play was doubtless Paul Revere and the Sons of Liberty (1875), written to contribute to the local excitement attendant upon the centennial celebration of the famous ride. More than forty years previously he had written Liberty Tree, or the Boston Boys to appeal to a public then rejoicing over the fiftieth anniversary of the end of the Revolutionary War.
In 1871 he published a novel entitled Life of Jefferson S. Batkins, Member from Cranberry Centre, Written by Himself, Assisted by the Author of The Silver Spoon. In addition to his practice as a physician, he delivered lectures on anatomy and physiology.
He died in 1877.
(This book was originally published prior to 1923, and rep...)
Jones supported copyright protection and adequate compensation for authors.
Jones married Hannah Canterbury Dexter (1812–1870). He married second his first wife's sister, Louisa Goward Dexter (1814–1890). One of his three sons, Nathaniel D. Jones, was an actor.
