ABSTRACT
Kemble was the third generation of Kembles to work in the theatre, although she always preferred writing to acting. Niece of John Philip Kemble and Sarah Siddons and daughter of the actor-proprietor of Covent Garden and an actress, Kemble made her acting debut as Juliet in 1829 at Covent Garden, at the urgings of her family, to help stave off debt. Though she was an instant success, her efforts did not save her father from bankruptcy, and, in 1832, father and daughter left for a two-year American theatrical tour to recoup funds. Kemble was wildly successful in America, but she most ardently desired a literary career like that of Scott, Byron, or Keats. In April 1834, she gladly rejected a stage career in favor of marriage to Pierce Butler, an American who had avidly pursued her since seeing her act in Philadelphia two years before. As Kemble later wrote to Anna Brownell Murphy Jameson nearly five months after her wedding, "In leaving the stage, I left nothing that I regretted."
