Mordecai Manuel Noah

Mordecai Manuel Noah , 1785-1851, American journalist and politician, b. Philadelphia. He became a journalist in Charleston, S.C., and gave ardent support to the War of 1812. As a special agent to Algiers, he helped secure (1813-15) the release of American prisoners held by Algerian pirates. He returned to the United States, held public offices in New York City, founded and edited many newspapers, including the New York Enquirer and the Evening Star, and wrote plays. His plays include She Would Be a Soldier (1819) and The Grecian Captive (1822). Becoming acutely conscious of the problems of the Jewish people, Noah unsuccessfully attempted to buy Grand Island in the Niagara River as a city of refuge for the Jews of the world.

Bibliography: See biography by I. Goldberg (1936).

Noah, Mordecai Manuel (1785–1851), born in Philadelphia of a distinguished Portuguese‐Jewish family, active in law, politics, and as a writer. His plays include Paul and Alexis (1812), a melodrama retitled The Wandering Boys (1821); She Would Be a Soldier (1819); The Siege of Tripoli (1820), also produced as Yuseff Caramalli but unprinted; Marion; or, The Hero of Lake George (1821); and The Grecian Captive (1822). As consul to Tunis (1813–15) he won the release of Americans imprisoned by Algerian pirates. He wrote of his Travels… (1819) and collected Gleanings… (1845) from the six dailies he founded and edited.

Noah, Mordecai Manuel (1785–1851), American playwright, whose first play, The Wandering Boys (1812), was a translation of Pixérécourt's Le Pèlerin blanc (1801). First produced in Charleston, this was later seen at Covent Garden with alterations, and in its amended form returned to New York, where it remained popular for many years. Noah's later plays were produced at the Park Theatre 1; it was after the third night of The Siege of Tripoli in 1820 that the theatre was destroyed by fire. In a later play, The Grecian Captive (1822), the hero and heroine made their entrances on an elephant and a camel respectively, a spectacular product, no doubt, of the fertile brain of the manager, Stephen Price. Noah's plays are simply written, with a good deal of action and sustained interest, and with the aid of lavish scenery, transparencies, and illuminations they held the stage for many years.