The Lady Actress

The Lady Actress: ePub; Kindle; Nook.

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“The Lady Actress is a well-researched analysis of the writings, orations, and dramatic performances of Victorian Era actress Anna Cora Mowatt (1819-1870). The author skillfully places this under-appreciated trail blazer’s life and works within the sexist and repressive period in which Mowatt lived. The result is a concise presentation of Victorian Era judgement and nuance and the amazing ability Mowatt had for turning these apparent limitations into strengths in order to pursue her craft.”
nanajlove, LibraryThing, February 25, 2011

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“Tell us about your book:

“I’m the author of The Lady Actress: Recovering the Lost Legacy of a Victorian American Superstar. It’s a book about the life and career of Anna Cora Mowatt, a person who was rather famous during her lifetime and is almost completely unknown now. She was the first woman to author a hit comedy on Broadway. She had successful careers as a public reader, an actress, a novelist, and a poet as well. Mowatt, the daughter of wealthy New York family, skillfully and tenaciously held on to her status as a person respectable enough to be received in high society while arm-deep in what was considered a to be a very depraved profession. In those days, actress were generally assumed to double as prostitutes. Although there were accomplished theatrical professionals like Fanny Kemble and Charlotte Cushman who were greatly admired by even the most stuffy, moneyed, Victorian Americans, rank and file female performers were considered vulgar, possibly criminal personages. A proper pre-Civil War parent of any income bracket would look on the announcement that their daughter had decided to become an actress much the same way a contemporary parent react to their child saying, ‘Mom, Dad, I’m dropping out of college and becoming a stripper!’”
Kelly S. Taylor interview at IndieSpotlight, October 1, 2010

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“I think that when we read and write history, we look for people and events who, with a few minor costume changes, could step into the world we live in and speak to problems we face today. Mowatt remains stubbornly in her curls and crinolines. I’m not saying she isn’t relevant. Her polite rebellion against the arrogantly puritanical snobbery of her peers probably did as much to change attitudes about women in the workplace as a hundred street corner speeches by a multitude would-be Susan B. Anthonys did. However, she was not a character from “Sex in the City” who magically found herself transported to 1855. She was a real Victorian who whose views don’t comfortably translate to the modern mind. She was an insider who liked being an insider. She was a privileged, white, conservative lady who decided to do something with her life that privileged, white, conservative ladies just did not do at that time — and she made that choice work with success that was nothing short of remarkable.”
Kelly S. Taylor, Ph.D. interview at SellingBooks.com

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