Pinero · A Theatrical Life

Sir Arthur Pinero was to his late Victorian and Edwardian contemporaries the leading English dramatist of his age. However, unlike Oscar Wilde and George Bernard Shaw, Pinero shunned self-publicity and is comparatively unknown to modern audiences. Steeping himself in the atmosphere of Pinero's second home, the Garrick Club, author John Dawick offers a rare look at both the personal and professional life of this often controversial playwright. Dawick's biography incorporates a wide array of previously unpublished material from Pinero's literary estate and additional sources, including correspondence between the playwright and other theater notables such as Sir Henry Irving, Mrs. Patrick Campbell, William Archer, Clement Scott, Sir Arthur Sullivan, Henry Arthur Jones, and, above all, George Bernard Shaw. Dawick engages readers in a thoughtful discussion of the dramatist's prolific output of plays, short stories, poems, essays, speeches, and articles in relation to their theatrical and social contexts, especially the Victorian obsession with respectability. In addition, he devotes an entire chapter to the production, presentation, and reception of Pinero's most famous play, The Second Mrs. Tanqueray, still considered a landmark in the development of modern English drama. Overall, Pinero: A Theatrical Life presents a panorama of English theater as seen through the eyes of one of its leading practitioners, from the last days of the Victorian stock companies to the advent of motion pictures.