American poet and dramatic critic; born in Gloucester, MA, on the 15th of July 1836; educated in Boston, at the Cambridge High School, and at the Harvard Law School; received the degree of Bachelor of Arts, and was admitted to the Suffolk bar. After a few years spent in lecturing in and around Boston, and in writing for the Boston Transcript and Gazette, he removed to New York in 1859. For six years he wrote for the Saturday Press and other publications; became managing editor and dramatic and literary critic of the New York Weekly Review in 1865; and also in that year accepted the position of dramatic critic on the New York Tribune, bringing that department in a few years to be recognized as the leading American authority on the drama. He visited England in 1877, and began a series of works descriptive of English scenes and memorials, beginning with The Trip to England 1879–80); and following that with English Rambles and Other Fugitive Pieces in Prose and Verse (1884); his most popular work, Shakespeare’s England (1886–95); Gray Days and Gold in England and Scotland (1891–95); Old Shrines and Ivy (1892–95); and Brown Heath and Blue Bells, being Sketches of Scotland, and Other Papers (1892). Besides many articles contributed to various periodicals he was the author of a number of books on dramatic subjects, including a Life of Edwin Booth (1872–94); The Jeffersons, in the American Actor series (1884–94); a Life of Henry Irving (1885); The Stage Life of Mary Anderson (1886); and Shadows of the Stage (three series, 1892–95). He also produced some excellent verse in the volumes My Witness (1871); Thistledown (1877); and Wanderers (1888–93).
