An Inventory of Its Correspondence in the Performing Arts Collection at
the Harry Ransom Center
Creator:
Samuel French, Inc., 1830-
Title:
Samuel French, Inc. Correspondence
Dates:
1949
Extent:
2 document boxes (0.84 linear feet)
Abstract:
Founded by Samuel French (1821-1898)
in New York City in 1846, Samuel French, Inc. is the largest and oldest publisher
and supplier of plays for amateur and stock theatre in the world. The Samuel French,
Inc. correspondence includes almost 300 typed letters, cables, and some clippings
exchanged during 1949 between the two branches of the company across the Atlantic.
Among the plays referred to in the correspondence are Tennessee Williams's A Streetcar Named Desire, Arthur Miller's Death of a Salesman, Noel Coward's Private Lives, and Anton Chekhov's The Sea Gull.
Founded by Samuel French (1821-1898) in New York City in 1846, Samuel French, Inc.
is
the largest and oldest publisher and supplier of plays for amateur and stock theatre
in the world. Moreover, the company also serves as a licensing agent for performance
rights and runs a theatrical bookshop.
Samuel French started his business reprinting and selling inexpensive editions of
popular novels. He began publishing plays in 1854, including his famous French's American Drama, which later he divided and
renamed French's Standard Drama and French's Minor Drama. These acting editions included
detailed stage directions and information on scenery, props, and other matters.
By
1856, he was advertising that he had 100,000 plays available, including the first
editions of Uncle Tom by George L. Aiken (1858) and
Dion Boucicault's The Poor of New York (1857).
In 1859, French and Thomas Hailes Lacy, the leading British publisher of plays and
publisher of Lacy's Acting Edition of Plays, became
partners acting as representatives of each other on both sides of the ocean. In
1872, Samuel French left his son Thomas Henry French in charge of his business
and
moved to London, strengthening his association with Lacy. After Lacy retired,
the
elder French bought his company for 5,000 pounds, becoming the most important
theatrical publisher in Great Britain. Lacy had started his business in 1830,
which
is the year that Samuel French Inc. now gives as its foundation date. In London,
French started collecting royalties from professional and amateur performers of
his
company's plays, a practice that continues today.
Under the direction of Cyril Hogg, Samuel French Inc. expanded its business to
related fields of the play publishing industry. They bought the costumers B. J.
Simmons and Charles H. Fox; hat and cap makers A. and L. Corne; the armorer and
jeweler Robert White; Fashion Hire, a company that supplied modern day costumes;
and Stage Scenery, a firm that supplied stage settings on a rental basis. The
company later sold all of these ancillary agencies to concentrate on its original
business, and as of 2006 it continues as the leading publisher of plays and licensor
of performance rights in the world, with offices in major English-speaking cities.
Sources:
"Samuel French".
Dictionary of Literary Biography,
http://galenet.galegroup.com (accessed March 2006).
Truly Yours: One Hundred and Fifty Years of Play Publishing
and Service to the Theatre (London: French, 1980).
Scope and Contents
The Samuel French, Inc. correspondence includes almost 300 typed letters, cables,
and
some clippings exchanged during 1949 between the two branches of the company across
the Atlantic. The majority of the letters were written by Harold F. Dyer and Cyril
W. Hogg from the London branch, and by Abbot van Nostrand and J. Frank Stephens
of
the New York City office; other letters were written by employees of the company,
and people related to the business. The correspondence is arranged in a single
chronological series, and a complete index follows the folder list.
Most of the correspondence is of a routine nature: comments and inquiries about
plays, publishing, playwrights, licensing of plays, copyrights, performing fees,
and
royalties. Sometimes the letters comment upon other subjects such as the
difficulties of dealing with certain playwrights, or about some producers and
"pirate" theater companies that performed plays without having the rights or paying
the fees.
Among the plays referred to in the correspondence are Arthur Conan Doyle's The Exploits of Sherlock Holmes, Tennessee Williams's
A Streetcar Named Desire, Edward Sheldon's Romance, W. Somerset Maugham's The Constant Wife, Paul Kester's adaptation of Tom Sayers, Marc Connelly's The Green
Pastures, Arthur Miller's Death of a
Salesman, Noel Coward's Private Lives, and
Anton Chekhov's The Sea Gull.
Index Terms
People
Dyer, Harold F.
Hogg, Cyril W.
Stephens, J. Frank.
Van Nostrand, M. Abbott.
Subjects
Drama--Publishing.
Publishers and publishing--England--London--History.
Publishers and publishing--New York (State)--New York--History.
