Ada Clare

For the character Ada Clare in the novel by Charles Dickens see Bleak House
Ada Clare. Photo courtesy of the Bancroft Library, University of California at Berkeley.

Ada Clare (July 1834 – March 4, 1874), born Ada Agnes Jane McElhenney, was an American actress, and writer.[1]

Life and career

Born in Charleston, South Carolina in 1834, she grew up under the care of her maternal grandfather as part of an aristocratic Southern family,[1] but started her career as a writer around age 18, writing under the pseudonyms Clare and later Ada Clare.[2]

She moved to New York City in 1854, took up acting, engaged in a widely publicized liaison with pianist and composer Louis Moreau Gottschalk, and bore a son out of wedlock.[1] During the height of her acting career, she frequented Pfaff's Cellar, where she became known as the "Queen of Bohemia". She also wrote for the Saturday Press, an iconoclastic weekly magazine of the arts.[1] Her only novel, entitled Only a Woman's Heart (1866), was so poorly received by reviewers that she withdrew from active writing, and spent the rest of her life acting in a provincial stock company.[1]

Clare suffered a dog bite in her theatrical agent's office and died from rabies in 1874.[1]

See also

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 6 Kenneth T. Jackson: The Encyclopedia of New York City: The New York Historical Society; Yale University Press; 1995. P. 238.
  2. ↑ Adrian Room. Dictionary of Pseudonyms. p. 505. Ada Clare:Jane McElheney... also wrote as Clare and Alastor, and acted as Agnes Stanfield. ..original surname ... given as McEhenney, McElHenney, McElehnny, McElhinney, McEthenery, and McEthenney... called herself Ada McElhenny.

External links

This article is issued from Wikipedia - version of the Thursday, December 31, 2015. The text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share Alike but additional terms may apply for the media files.