ABSTRACT
Adah Isaccs Menken, also known as Bertha Theodore and Dolores McCord, among other names, was actor first, poet second (though in many ways she would probably have preferred it the other way round). She grew up in America, and later invented many different versions of her early life according to the exigency of the moment, or the needs of her publicity machine – she was adept at the latter, never missing a photo opportunity (a remarkable number of these survive). It has been plausibly suggested that her actual parentage was neither Jewish nor Spanish (two roles she perfected) but Creole (mother) and ‘free man of color’ (father) (Mankowitz, 1982, p. 34). After establishing herself on the stage in the south-western states, she moved to California, and then headed east, triumphing in many venues before reaching the pinnacle on Broadway, and catching and discarding husbands (some bigamously) as she went. In April 1864 she finally reached London, where she had long been hoping to break into the theatre world. This she was to accomplish, although not, perhaps, in the way she might have wished for. Always a colourful figure, full of verve and passion, though with a deep strain of melancholy which comes out most forcefully in her poetry, she created something of a sensation wherever she went. The fact that her one book of poetry, Infelicia (1868), was published in London, thus appearing in the context of the English poetry of the day, rather than to an American public, makes it a worthwhile inclusion in this volume. Its very differences from the other poets represented here serve to highlight their special qualities, as well as Menken’s.
