ermany at the time were strained on account of 'certain
happenings', but, notwithstanding, the play was
extraordinarily well received.

When "The New York Idea" was first published by the Walter Baker Co.,
of Boston, it carried as an introduction a notice of the play written
by William Archer, and originally published in the London _Tribune_ of
May 27, 1907. This critique follows the present foreword, as its use
in the early edition represents Mr. Mitchell's choice.

The writing of "The New York Idea" was not Mr. Mitchell's first
dramatic work for Mrs. Fiske. At the New York Fifth Avenue Theatre, on
September 12, 1899, she appeared in "Becky Sharp," his successful
version of Thackeray's "Vanity Fair," which held the stage for some
time, and was later revived with considerable renewal of its former
interest. Two years after, rival versions were presented in London,
one by David Balsillie (Theatre Royal, Croydon, June 24, 1901) and the
other by Robert Hichens and Cosmo Gordon Lennox (Prince of Wales's
Theatre, August 27, 1901)--the latter play used during the existence
of the New Theatre (New York). Most of Mr. Mitchell's attempts in
play-writing have been in dramatization, first of his father's "The
Adventures of Francois," and later of Thackeray's "Pendennis,"
Atlantic City, October 11, 1916. He was born February 17, 1862, at
Philadelphia, the son of Silas Weir Mitchell, and received his
education largely abroad. He studied law at Harvard and Columbia, and
was admitted to the bar in 1882. He was married, in 1892, to Marion
Lea, of London, whose name was connected with the early introduction
of Ibsen to the English public; she was in the initial cast of "The
New York Idea," and to her the play is dedicated.

MR. WILLIAM ARCHER'S NOTICE OF
"THE NEW YORK IDEA."

... This play, too, I was unable to see, but I have read it
with extraordinary interest. It is a social satire so largely
conceived and so vigorously executed that it might take an
honourable place in any dramatic literature. We have nothing
quite like it on the latter-day English stage. In tone and
treatment it reminds one of Mr. Carton; but it is far broader
in conception and richer in detail than "Lord and Lady Algy"
or "Lady Huntworth's Experiment." In France, it might perhaps
be compared to "La Famille Benoiton" or "Le Monde ou l'on
s'ennuie," or better, perhaps, to a more recent, but now
almost forgo