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IRA ALDRIDGE: THE AFRICAN ROSCIUS. Edited by Bernth Lindfors. New York: University of Rochester Press, 2007; pp. xii + 288. $55.00 cloth.
Published on the bicentenary of the actor's birth, Ira Aldridge: The African Roscius, edited by Bernth Lindfors, is the second major work devoted to the life and career of Ira Aldridge. The first, Ira Aldridge: The Negro Tragedian published in 1958 by Hebert Marshall and Mildred Stock, stood as the only English-language biography of the legendary African American Shakespearean actor.
Aldridge was the first African American to achieve stardom in the theatre, but he had to leave the United States to do so. Born in New York City, Aldridge's father had wanted him to enter the religious profession, but Aldridge's passion was for the theatre, fueled by watching performances at the Park Theatre, where the gallery was reserved for blacks. During his teens, Aldridge became associated with the African Grove Theatre, the first theatre in the United States that catered to and was managed by African Americans. Finding no adequate outlet for his ambition in New York, he left for England,...