Percy MacKaye

Percy MacKaye (1875-1936) as Alwyn the poet in MacKaye's play Sanctuary: A bird masque, 1913. Photo by Arnold Genthe (1869-1942). Courtesy Wikimedia Commons.

Percy MacKaye (1875-1956) was an American poet and dramatist.

Life

Youth and education

MacKaye was born in New York City. He was the son of actor, impresario and theatrical technology innovator Steele MacKaye, and brother of philosopher James MacKaye and conservationist Benton MacKaye.

After graduating from Harvard University in 1897, he traveled in Europe for 3 years, residing in Rome, Switzerland and London, and studying at the University of Leipzig in 1899-1900.

Career

After graduation, MacKayeHe returned to New York City to teach at a private school until 1904. In the latter year he joined a colony of artists and writers in Cornish, New Hampshire, and devoted himself entirely to dramatic work.

He wrote the plays The Canterbury Pilgrims in 1903, Sappho and Phaon in 1907, Jeanne D'Arc in 1907, The Scarecrow in 1908, and Anti-Matrimony in 1910.

In 1912 he published The Civic Theatre in Relation to the Redemption of Leisure: A book of suggestions. Here he presented a concept of Civic Theatre as "the conscious awakening of the people to self-government in its leisure". To this end he called for the active involvement of the public, not merely as spectators, professional staff not dominated by commercial considerations, and the elimination of private profit by endowment and public support. This concept was influential on Platon Kerzhentsev and the Soviet Proletcult Theatre movement.

In the 1920s, MacKaye was poet in residence at Miami University in Oxford, Ohio. He lectured on the theatre at Harvard, Yale, Columbia and other universities in the United States.

In 1950, MacKaye published The Mystery of Hamlet King of Denmark, or What We Will, a series of 4 plays written as prequels to William Shakespeare's Hamlet.

Recognition

Star Song - Percy MacKaye (original)

MacKaye was made a member of the National Institute of Arts and Letters in 1914.

MacKaye has been called the 1st poet of the Atomic Era because of his sonnet "The Atomic Law," which was published in the Christmas 1945 issue of The Churchman.

Publications

Poetry

• Poems. New York: Macmillan, 1909.
• Ode on the Centenary of Abraham Lincoln. New York: Macmillan, 1909.
• Uriel, and other poems. Boston & New York: Houghton Mifflin, 1912.
• The Present Hour: A book of poems. New York: Macmillan, 1914.
• The Sistine Eve, and other poems. Macmillan, 1915.
• Dogtown Common. New York: Macmillan, 1921.
• The Far Familiar: Fifty new poems. Richards, 1938.

Plays

• The Canterbury Pilgrims: A comedy. London & New York: Macmillan, 1903. (This comedy was produced by the Coburn Players in the open air at Harvard, Yale and other universities in 1909-13, and given as a civic pageant in honor of President Taft at Gloucester, Massachusetts, 4 August 1909).
• Fenris the Wolf: A tragedy. New York & London: Macmillan, 1905.
• Jeanne D'Arc: A drama. London & New York: Macmillan, 1906.
• Sappho and Phaon. New York: Macmillan, 1907.
• The Scarecrow: or, The Glass of Truth: A tragedy of the ludicrous. Macmillan, 1908.
• Mater: An American study in comedy. Macmillan, 1908.
• Anti-matrimony: A satirical comedy. Frederick A. Stokes, 1910.
• Yankee Fantasies: Five one-act plays. New York: Duffield, 1912.
• To-morrow: A play in three acts. Frederick A. Stokes, 1912.
• St. Louis: A civic masque. Garden City, NY: Doubleday, 1914.
• A Thousand Years Ago: A romance of the Orient. Doubleday, 1914.
• Sanctuary: A bird masque. Frederick A. Stokes, 1914. (Produced for President Wilson at Meriden Bird Club Sanctuary, New Hampshire).
• The immigrants: A lyric drama. B.W. Huebsch, 1915.
• Caliban by the Yellow Sands. Doubleday, Page, 1916. (A community masque to commemorate the Shakespeare Tercentenary.)
• The Evergreen Tree. New York & London: D. Appleton, 1917.
• The Roll Call: A masque of the Red Cross. Washington, DC: American Red Cross National Headquarters, 1918.
• Washington, the Man Who Made Us: A ballad play. Knopf, 1919.
• The Pilgrim and the Book. New York: American Bible Society, 1920. (A dramatic “Service” for celebrating the Pilgrim Centenary.)
• Kentucky Mountain Fantasies: Three short plays for an Appalachian theatre. New York: Longman's, 1924.
• An Arrant Knave & other plays. Princeton University Press, 1941.
• The Mystery of Hamlet, King of Denmark, Or. What We Will: A Tetralogy in Prologue to "The Tragicall Historie of Hamlet, Prince of Denmarke". J. Lane, 1952.

Opera librettos

• The Canterbury Pilgrims: An Opera (music by Reginald De Koven). Cincinnati, OH: John Church, 1916.
• Rip Van Winkle: folk-opera in three acts (music by Reginald De Koven). G. Schirmer, 1919.

Non-fiction

• The Playhouse and the Play, and other addresses concerning the theatre and democracy in America. New York: Macmillan, 1909.
• The Civic Theatre in Relation to the Redemption of Leisure: A book of suggestions. M. Kennerly, 1912.
• Community Drama: Its motive and method of neighborliness. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1917.

Collected editions

• Poems and Plays. New York: Macmillan, 1916.Volume I - Poems, Volume II - Plays.

Edited

• William Vaughn Moody, *Letters to Harriet Boston & New York: Houghton Mifflin, 1935.

Christmas 1915 by Percy Mackaye

See also

• List of U.S. poets
• List of English-language playwrights

References

Fonds

• Papers of the MacKaye Family in the Dartmouth College Library

External links

Poems

• 3 poems by MacKaye: "Early April in England," "Early May in New England," "Christmas 1915"
• Percy Mackaye in The New Poetry: An anthology: "Old Age," "Song from Mater"
• Percy MacKaye at PoemHunter (9 poems)

Audio / video

• Percy MacKaye at YouTube

Books

• Works by Percy MacKaye at Project Gutenberg
• Percy MacKaye at Internet Archive
• Percy MacKaye 1875-1956) at the Online Books Page
• Percy MacKaye at Amazon.com

About

• Percy MacKaye in the Encyclopædia Britannica
• Percy MacKaye at NNDB
• Article in Time Magazine of 4 February 1924 at time.com
• Percy MacKaye at Internet Movie Database