Allan Wade (17 May 1881 – 12 July 1955) was a British actor, theatre director and writer.

Early life

Allan Wade was the son of the Rev Stephen Wade of

Boscastle Boscastle ( kw, Kastel Boterel) is a village and fishing port on the north coast of Cornwall, England, in the civil parish of Forrabury and Minster (where the 2011 Census population was included) . It is south of Bude and northeast of Tin ...

Cornwall Cornwall (; kw, Kernow ) is a historic county and ceremonial county in South West England. It is recognised as one of the Celtic nations, and is the homeland of the Cornish people. Cornwall is bordered to the north and west by the Atlantic ...

and was educated at

Blundell's School Blundell's School is a co-educational day and boarding independent school in the English public school tradition, located in Tiverton, Devon. It was founded in 1604 under the will of Peter Blundell, one of the richest men in England at the t ...

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 Harley Granville-Barker (25 November 1877 – 31 August 1946) was an English actor, director, playwright, manager, critic, and theorist. After early success as an actor in the plays of George Bernard Shaw, he increasingly turned to directi ...

, with whom he stayed until 1915."Mr Allan Wade: Student of Yeats and Henry James", ''The Times'', 15 July 1955, p. 11

Later career and writing

Although Wade continued to act occasionally for many years, his theatrical interests gradually moved towards direction. He produced 14 plays for the

Incorporated Stage Society The Incorporated Stage Society, commonly known as the Stage Society, was an English theatre society with limited membership which mounted private Sunday performances of new and experimental plays, mainly at the Royal Court Theatre (whose Vedrenne- ...

and almost all the revivals of the Phoenix Society (1919), of which he was one of the four founders. He translated plays by

Giraudoux Hippolyte Jean Giraudoux (; 29 October 1882 – 31 January 1944) 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 wo ...

and

Cocteau Jean Maurice Eugène Clément Cocteau (, , ; 5 July 1889 – 11 October 1963) was a French poet, playwright, novelist, designer, filmmaker, visual artist and critic. He was one of the foremost creatives of the su ...

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 (13 June 186528 January 1939) was an Irish poet, dramatist, writer and one of the foremost figures of 20th-century literature. He was a driving force behind the Irish Literary Revival and became a pillar of the Irish liter ...

Henry James Henry James ( – ) was an American-British author. He is regarded as a key transitional figure between literary realism and literary modernism, and is considered by many to be among the greatest novelists in the English language. He was the ...

, Joseph Conrad and

Max Beerbohm Sir Henry Maximilian Beerbohm (24 August 1872 – 20 May 1956) was an English essayist, parodist and caricaturist under the signature Max. He first became known in the 1890s as a dandy and a humorist. He was the drama critic for the '' Saturd ...

, hunting out their anonymous contributions to periodicals and copying them out by hand in the

British Museum The British Museum is a public museum dedicated to human history, art and culture located in the Bloomsbury area of London. Its permanent collection of eight million works is among the largest and most comprehensive in existence. It docum ...

. In 1948 he edited James's then unknown dramatic criticism as ''The Scenic Art'', published by

Rupert Hart-Davis Sir Rupert Charles Hart-Davis (28 August 1907 – 8 December 1999) was an English publisher and editor. He founded the publishing company Rupert Hart-Davis Ltd. As a biographer, he is remembered for his ''Hugh Walpole'' (1952), as an editor, f ...

in 1950, with an introduction by

Leon Edel Joseph Leon Edel (9 September 1907 – 5 September 1997) was an American/Canadian literary critic and biographer. He was the elder brother of North American philosopher Abraham Edel. The ''Encyclopædia Britannica'' calls Edel "the foremos ...

. Wade was a friend of Yeats and in 1908 his interim bibliography appeared in Bullen's collected edition of Yeats's works; 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.Lyttelton and Hart-Davis, pp. 8–9 Wade died suddenly on 12 July 1955 aged 74, leaving a widow, Margot, whom he married in 1933.

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; ) *Memories of the London theatre, 1900-1914; London: Society for Theatre Research, 1983; (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; * The Quarterly Theatre Review: New Series: Winter 1955, No. 39

References

Sources

External links

Worldcat; Links to works by Allan Wade, extracted 12 October 2009
{{DEFAULTSORT:Wade, Allan 1881 births 1955 deaths People educated at Blundell's School English writers English theatre directors English male stage actors