James A. Herne

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Herne, James A. [né Ahearn] (1839–1901), playwright and actor. The son of a poor Irish immigrant who had adopted the rigorous philosophy of the Dutch Reformed Church, he was taken out of school in his native Cohoes, New York, at the age of thirteen and put to work in a brush factory. Although his father forbade his attending theatricals, when he was fourteen he saw Edwin Forrest perform. That spurred him to pursue a career. However, it was not until he was twenty that he joined a traveling troupe performing the dog dramas then popular. Herne performed in upstate New York, Washington, Baltimore, Philadelphia, Montreal, and then to New York before serving a stint as manager of Manhattan's Grand Opera House. He next managed several theatres in California, where he met David Belasco and married Katharine Corcoran. Herne had already begun to adapt novels for the stage, but it was with Belasco that he wrote his first important play, Hearts of Oak (1880). The play was unusual for its day, offering neither a clear hero nor a clear villain. After quarreling with Belasco, Herne wrote an unsuccessful patriotic drama, The Minute Men of 1774–75 (1886). The movement toward naturalistic writing, which Herne had manifested in Hearts of Oak, was seen more clearly in his next play, Drifting Apart (1888), which brought him to the attention of such important literary figures as Hamlin Garland and William Dean Howells. Along with his actress wife, both men encouraged him as he worked on his next play, Margaret Fleming (1891), the first important American play to demonstrate a significant debt to Ibsen. That connection was held against it by many contemporary playgoers; even Mrs. Herne's fine acting of the title role could not ensure its acceptance. However, Herne's next play, Shore Acres (1893), enjoyed widespread success with the author in the leading role. His last works were The Reverend Griffith Davenport (1899) and Sag Harbor (1900), in which Herne assumed the role of an aging guardian angel, Captain Dan Marble. Herne was more of an enlightened, progressive writer than a great one. Even if his plays had revealed greater literary or artistic merits, it seems doubtful that they would have been more successful, for he paid the price for being in the avant‐garde: forced runs, small profits, and often downright commercial failure. As a result, even when his reputation as a playwright was established, to make ends meet he was often required to act in or direct other men's works. However, his principal celebrity comes from his effectively introducing Ibsen's theories into American drama. His daughter was actress Chrystal Herne. Biography: James A. Herne: The American Ibsen, John Perry, 1978.

Herne, James A. [ James A. Ahearn] (1839–1901), American actor and dramatist, who made his first appearance on the stage in 1850. As manager of Maguire's New Theatre in San Francisco he appeared in a number of adaptations of Dickens's novels, which appear to have had a great influence on his own writing. He also worked with Belasco at the neighbouring Baldwin Theatre, collaborating with him on the production of his own Hearts of Oak (1879). This was pure melodrama; Herne's later work showed more realism and sobriety, mainly under the influence of his wife Katharine Corcoran (1857–1943), a fine actress who played most of his heroines, including the leading role in Margaret Fleming (1890), a sombre drama of infidelity. In 1892 Herne put on Shore Acres, which after a slow start became one of the most popular plays of the day, mainly through the character of Uncle Nathaniel Berry. It was followed by The Reverend Griffith Davenport (1899), of which no complete copy has survived, and Sag Harbour (1900), in which Herne was acting at the time of his death.

Herne, James A. (1839–1901), New York actor and playwright, first came into prominence during his association with Belasco in San Francisco. His plays, first published in a collected edition in 1928, include Margaret Fleming (1890), a somber, realistic story of marital infidelity; Shore Acres (1892), a realistic depiction of New England life; The Reverend Griffith Davenport (1899), a Civil War play; and Sag Harbor (1899), a reworking of Hearts of Oak (1879), originally written with Belasco, a final example of his mastery of homely realism and his break with the old tradition.