-Adah Menken and Ada Clare

https://www.lehigh.edu/~asj316/actors/harvard_Adah_Isaacs_Menken.jpg

Bohemians such as Adah Isaacs Menken spent their professional lives in Manhattan’s theater district, which was a short walk from Pfaff’s. Menken was one of the most successful (and scandalous) actors in the world, performing in San Francisco, New York City, London, and Paris. She appeared “nude” onstage in flesh-colored tights and dressed in men’s clothes, as seen on the cover of this modern edition of her collected works of poetry and prose. Her friend Ada Clare, who was universally recognized as the “Queen of Bohemia,” found greater success as a columnist than an actor, but she remained active in the theater until her early death at 39.

Adah Isaacs Menken reclining on forearm
Sarony and Company, New York, c. 1868
Harvard Theater Collection, Houghton Library, Harvard University

Image available through Harvard University Theater Collection.

Adah Isaacs Menken (1835 - 1868), edited by Gregory Eiselein (1965- )     
Infelicia and Other Writings
Orchard Park, NY: Broadview Press, 2002

Lehigh University Catalog Record: https://asa.lib.lehigh.edu/Record/871564

Adah Isaacs Menken (1835 - 1868) 
Infelicia
Philadelphia ; New York ; Boston : [s.n.], 1868.

Lehigh University Catalog Record: https://asa.lib.lehigh.edu/Record/871514

A version of this text has been digitized and is available through the Internet Archive.


Ada Clare in the role of Mistress Page
1866
Harvard Theater Collection, Houghton Library, Harvard University

Image available through Harvard University Theater Collection.

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