McKee Rankin and the Heyday of the American Theatre

David E. Kemp, a former professor of drama at Queen’s University, is
the author of The Pleasures and Treasures of the United Kingdom.

Canadian-born McKee Rankin was a leading figure in American theatre
circles from the 1860s to the turn of the century. The dynamic and
multi-talented actor, director, playwright, and creator of a school of
acting in New York and a repertory theater in San Francisco moved from
poverty to riches and back to poverty as an obese alcoholic who died in
1914. Born in 1844, near Windsor, Rankin received a classical education
in London, England, and at Upper Canada College in Toronto. His
infatuation with theatre began in his teens.

David Beasley is the author of an earlier biography of John Richardson,
Canada’s first great novelist. His detailed and well-documented study
of Rankin, a true original, is a labor of love that affords many new
insights into a relatively neglected chapter in North American theatre
history.