Allan Wade
Encyclopedia
Early life
Allan Wade was the son of the Rev. Stephen Wade of BoscastleBoscastle
Boscastle is a village and fishing port on the north coast of Cornwall, England, in the civil parish of Forrabury and Minster. It is situated 14 miles south of Bude and 5 miles north-east of Tintagel....
in Cornwall
Cornwall
Cornwall is a unitary authority and ceremonial county of England, within the United Kingdom. It is bordered to the north and west by the Celtic Sea, to the south by the English Channel, and to the east by the county of Devon, over the River Tamar. Cornwall has a population of , and covers an area of...
and was educated at Blundell's School
Blundell's School
Blundell's School is a co-educational day and boarding independent school located in the town of Tiverton in the county of Devon, England. The school was founded in 1604 by the will of Peter Blundell, one of the richest men in England at the time, and relocated to its present location on the...
in Tiverton. In 1904 be went on the stage as a member of the F. R. Benson company and in 1906 he became secretary, assistant, and play-reader to Granville Barker, with whom he stayed until 1915.
Later career and writing
Although he continued to act occasionally for many years, his theatrical interests gradually moved towards direction. He produced 14 plays for the Incorporated Stage Society and almost all of the revivals of the Phoenix Society (1919), of which he was one of the four founders. He translated plays by GiraudouxJean Giraudoux
Hippolyte Jean Giraudoux was a French novelist, essayist, diplomat and playwright. He is considered among the most important French dramatists of the period between World War I and World War II. His work is noted for its stylistic elegance and poetic fantasy...
and Cocteau
Jean Cocteau
Jean Maurice Eugène Clément Cocteau was a French poet, novelist, dramatist, designer, playwright, artist and filmmaker. His circle of associates, friends and lovers included Kenneth Anger, Pablo Picasso, Jean Hugo, Jean Marais, Henri Bernstein, Marlene Dietrich, Coco Chanel, Erik Satie, María...
into English.
In his spare time Wade formed extensive collections of the works and fugitive pieces of his favourite living writers – W. B. Yeats
William Butler Yeats
William Butler Yeats was an Irish poet and playwright, and one of the foremost figures of 20th century literature. A pillar of both the Irish and British literary establishments, in his later years he served as an Irish Senator for two terms...
, Henry James
Henry James
Henry James, OM was an American-born writer, regarded as one of the key figures of 19th-century literary realism. He was the son of Henry James, Sr., a clergyman, and the brother of philosopher and psychologist William James and diarist Alice James....
, Joseph Conrad
Joseph Conrad
Joseph Conrad was a Polish-born English novelist.Conrad is regarded as one of the great novelists in English, although he did not speak the language fluently until he was in his twenties...
and Max Beerbohm
Max Beerbohm
Sir Henry Maximilian "Max" Beerbohm was an English essayist, parodist and caricaturist best known today for his 1911 novel Zuleika Dobson.-Early life:...
, hunting out their anonymous contributions to periodicals and copying them out by hand in the British Museum
British Museum
The British Museum is a museum of human history and culture in London. Its collections, which number more than seven million objects, are amongst the largest and most comprehensive in the world and originate from all continents, illustrating and documenting the story of human culture from its...
. When in the l940’s Henry James began to be read and studied again, Allan Wade’s collection and knowledge proved invaluable to the scholars and in 1948 he edited and introduced James’s then unknown dramatic criticism as The Scenic Art.
Wade was a friend of Yeats and in 1908 his interim bibliography appeared in Bullen’s collected edition of Yeat’s works and he later he published the standard Bibliography. He went on to collect, edit and annotate the Letters of W.B. Yeats (1954) and at the time of his death was far advanced in collecting and editing the Letters of Oscar Wilde.
Publications
Wade’s publications included:- A bibliography of the writings of W. B. Yeats; London: 1951 (3rd edition revised and edited by Russell K. Alspach; 1968; ISBN 10: 024664138X)
- Memories of the London theatre, 1900-1914; London: Society for Theatre Research, 1983; ISBN 0-85430-037-6 (pbk.)
- The Scenic Art. Notes on acting and the drama 1872 – 1901; 1948; New Brunswick, Rutgers University Press; OCLC Number 24268403
- The letters of W.B. Yeats: 1954; edited by Allan Wade; London: Hart-Davis; Bib ID 2328486
Related publications include:
- W. B. Yeats : a classified bibliography of criticism including additions to Allan Wade's Bibliography of the writings of W. B. Yeats and a section on the Irish literary and dramatic revival; K.P.S. Jochum; Folkestone: Dawson, 1978; ISBN 0-7129-0862-5
- The Quarterly Theatre Review: New Series: Winter 1955, No. 39