COLUMBIA
LIBRARY
COLUMNS
 

Miss Kemble's Keys

ANDREW B. MYERS
 

IS anything more intriguing about a diary in print than names
left blank? And when the writer is a brilliant actress, and a
reigning beauty, surely these touches of mystery become even
more exciting. Whom did she mean here — and there? Why did
she hide this — or that?

The discovery of keys to these locked doors of memory can be
quite exciting. And when the keys actually were made by the dia¬
rist, and then only for the use of a trusted friend, interest is inten¬
sified. Special Collections has uncovered, in the transfer to Butler
Library of rarities from the old Brander Matthews Dramatic Mu¬
seum, just such an unusual volume, an annotated journal of the
famous Fanny Kemble (1809-1893). It is discussed here for the
first time.^

By any odds the most gifted and exciting Englishwoman to visit
the United States in the Age of Jackson was the young Frances
Anne Kemble, truly a fairy princess of the realm of theatre. Born
into the royal family of the London stage, daughter of the great
tragedian Charles Kemble, and niece of "Glorious John" Kemble
and the immortal Mrs. Sarah Siddons, Fanny was an exceptional
combination of brains and beauty. Her arrival in New Y'brk in

1 A further teaser is the reported existence of a second annotated copy of this
same book. It has not proved possible to trace this, even through Mrs. Walter
Stokes, a great granddaughter of Fanny Kemble, who is an acknowledged author¬
ity on the famed actress.

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