1830-1876
American playwright and actor George L. Aiken was born on this day in Boston. Although Aiken is best known for his plays, his writing career started as novelist. He was adept at writing intriguing stories quickly, supporting himself by getting his work published as inexpensive paper backs, even as he turned to the theater and became an actor. He was introduced to the work by a cousin who was an owner of a theatrical troupe. Though he wrote completely original plays, it was his adaptation for the stage of Harriet Beecher Stowe's novel Uncle Tom's Cabin in 1852 for which he is remembered today. His would not be the only adaptation of the novel for the stage, but it was the first (as the book was itsel also published in 1852), and Aiken's adaptation is far and away the most popular stage adaptation. His specific reworking of the book was itself adapted for the motion picture screen by Edward McWade in 1914. That film, was directed by William Robert Daly for Selznick's World Film. The lead was played by Sam Lucas, famed for his minstrelsy. It was the only time, that is credited at least, that his adaptation was made into a film, though his version of the play continued to be performed live on the stage well into the 1930's. Aiken himself retired from the stage in 1867 at just the age of 37. He also died young, at just the age of 45, some nine years later on the 27th of April in Jersey City, New Jersey. He was buried back in his home state, the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, at Cambridge's famed Mount Auburn Cemetery (note: Find A Grave obviously has him mixed up with someone else with the same name--they erroneously have him buried in Bay Minette, Alabama).
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| A handwritten page from his adaptation of Uncle Tom's Cabin |
The George C. Howard & Family Collection: Harry Ransom Center
(Howard was Aiken's theatrical cousin who gave him his start on the stage)
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