- Source: Marguerite Merington
Marguerite Merington (1857 – May 20, 1951) was an English-born American author of short stories, essays, dramatic works, and biographies. For several years, she taught in Greek and Latin at the Normal College in New York before pursuing a career as an author.
Early life and education
Marguerite Merington was born in Stoke Newington, England, in 1857, the daughter of Elizabeth and Richard Whiskin Crawford Merington (1827-1901), a clerk in the Bank of England. Her aunt was Martha Merington, a British politician, notable as the first woman to serve as a Poor Law Guardian.
In January 1869 she came with her parents to Buffalo, New York where she was educated at a convent. Even as a girl, she displayed dramatic talent, and often wrote and acted little parlor plays.
Career
For several years, she was instructor in Greek and Latin in the Normal College in New York. After resigning from this position, Merington pursued the career of a dramatic author. About 1889, E. H. Sothern proposed that Merington should write him a play, the leading character of which should be a captivating Irish gentleman. With a few suggestions from him, the play, Captain Lettarblair was written. Before it was performed, Joseph Jefferson, saw the manuscript and praised it highly. The play had a trial run at an authors' matinee in New York City, and was first presented August 16, 1892, at the Lyceum Theatre. Captain Lettarblair, produced by Daniel Frohman, brought in large audiences, was financially successful, and held a place in Sothern's repertoire.
Merington wrote other dramas, including Good-Bye, A Lover's Knot, and the libretto of a comic opera, Daphne, or the Pipes of Arcadia. Set to music by Arthur Bird, of London, it gained the prize of US$500 from the New York Conservatory of Music. After having served as the private secretary of Elizabeth Bacon Custer, Merington became the editor of The Custer Story: The Life and Intimate Letters of General George A. Custer and His Wife Elizabeth.
Death
Merington died on May 20, 1951, in her Manhattan home. Of her life she said: "There is absolutely nothing about me to be told, and that I never tell."
Selected works
Notes
References
= Attribution
=This article incorporates text from this source, which is in the public domain: Siegel-Cooper (1899). "American Women Play-Wrights, by Esther Singleton". Book Notes: A Monthly Literary Magazine and Review of New Books (Public domain ed.). Siegel-Cooper.
= Bibliography
=Dippie, Brian W. (1994). Custer's Last Stand: The Anatomy of an American Myth. University of Nebraska Press. p. 183. ISBN 0-8032-6592-1.
Fisher, James; Londré, Felicia Hardison (22 November 2017). Historical Dictionary of American Theater: Modernism. Rowman & Littlefield Publishers. ISBN 978-1-5381-0786-7.
External links
Works by or about Marguerite Merington at the Internet Archive