Harriet Ford (after marriage, Morgan; 1863 – December 12, 1949) was an American actress and

playwright A playwright or dramatist is a person who writes plays. Etymology The word "play" is from Middle English pleye, from Old English plæġ, pleġa, plæġa ("play, exercise; sport, game; drama, applause"). The word "wright" is an archaic English ...

who flourished during the latter part of the 19th century. Her contemporaries included:

Edith Ellis Edith Mary Oldham Ellis (née Lees; 9 March 1861 – 14 September 1916) was an English writer and women's rights activist. She was married to the early sexologist Havelock Ellis. Biography Ellis was born on 9 March 1861 in Newton, Lancashi ...

, Marion Fairfax,

Eleanor Gates Eleanor Gates (26 September 1874 – 7 March 1951) was an American playwright who created seven plays that were staged on Broadway. Her best known work was the play ''The Poor Little Rich Girl'', which was produced by her husband in 1913 and w ...

Georgia Douglas Johnson Georgia Blanche Douglas Camp Johnson, better known as Georgia Douglas Johnson (September 10, 1880 – May 15, 1966), was a poet. She was one of the earliest female African-American playwrights, and an important figure of the Harlem Renaissance. ...

, Margaret Mayo,

Marguerite Merington Marguerite Merington (1857/60/61 – May 20, 1951) was an English-born American author of short stories, essays, dramatic works, and biographies. For several years, she taught in Greek and Latin at the Normal College in New York before pursuing ...

Martha Morton Martha Morton (October 10, 1865 – February 18, 1925) was the first successful American woman to sustain a lengthy career as a professional playwright. Author of numerous plays, she founded the Society of Dramatic Authors, and helped open doo ...

, Lottie Blair Parker,

Josephine Preston Peabody Josephine Preston Peabody (May 30, 1874 – December 4, 1922) was an American poet and dramatist. Biography Peabody was born in New York and educated at the Girls' Latin School, Boston, and at Radcliffe College. In 1898, she was introduced ...

, Mary Roberts Rinehart, Madeleine Lucette Ryley, and

Rida Johnson Young Rida Johnson Young (February 28, 1875 – May 8, 1926) was an American playwright, songwriter and librettist.IBDBRida Johnson Young Retrieved November 21, 2007 In her career, Young wrote over thirty plays and musicals, and over 500 songs. She ...

Early life and education

Harriet French Ford was born in Seymour, Connecticut, in 1868 or 1863, the daughter of Samuel and Isabel Stoddard Ford. She was educated in the public schools of

New Haven, Connecticut New Haven is a city in the U.S. state of Connecticut. It is located on New Haven Harbor on the northern shore of Long Island Sound in New Haven County, Connecticut and is part of the New York City metropolitan area. With a population of 134,02 ...

and

Boston Boston (), officially the City of Boston, is the state capital and most populous city of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, as well as the cultural and financial center of the New England region of the United States. It is the 24th- mo ...

Massachusetts Massachusetts (Massachusett language, Massachusett: ''Muhsachuweesut assachusett writing systems, məhswatʃəwiːsət'' English: , ), officially the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, is the most populous U.S. state, state in the New England ...

, before she became a pupil at the

Boston School of Oratory The Boston School of Oratory was a private institution in Boston, Massachusetts, founded in 1879 by Robert R. Raymond, a dramatic reader. It succeeded the Boston University School of Oratory, which had sometimes been informally known by the same ...

. After graduating from that institution, where her talent for recitation and acting was thought remarkable, she entered the

American Academy of Dramatic Arts The American Academy of Dramatic Arts (AADA) is a private performing arts conservatory with two locations, one in Manhattan and one in Los Angeles. The academy offers an associate degree in occupational studies and teaches drama and related art ...

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

, graduating in two years. She also attended the Sargent Dramatic School, studying under

David Belasco David Belasco (July 25, 1853 – May 14, 1931) was an American theatrical producer, impresario, director, and playwright. He was the first writer to adapt the short story ''Madame Butterfly'' for the stage. He launched the theatrical career of m ...

who prophesied for her success as an interpreter of the plays of others.

Career

Ford started her career as an actress. After six years of varied work, beginning with the chorus of ''She'', from which

Charles Frohman Charles Frohman (July 15, 1856 – May 7, 1915) was an American theater manager and producer, who discovered and promoted many stars of the American stage. Notably, he produced ''Peter Pan'', both in London and the US, the latter production ...

rescued her at rehearsal by assigning her a part in the same play, and ending with three years as a leading actress for

Sol Smith Russell Solomon Smith Russell (1848–1902) was a 19th-century American comedic stage actor who began performing as a boy during the American Civil War. Early life Russell was born at Brunswick, Missouri, the eldest of two sons and a daughter raised by ...

, convinced of her interest in the stage. She began to write during her first year acting on the stage, while she was appearing in William Gillette's plays in

London London is the capital and largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary down to the North Sea, and has been a majo ...

. He was her stage sponsor.

Henry Morton Stanley Sir Henry Morton Stanley (born John Rowlands; 28 January 1841 – 10 May 1904) was a Welsh-American explorer, journalist, soldier, colonial administrator, author and politician who was famous for his exploration of Central Africa Cen ...

was returning from Africa with

Emin Pasha 185px, Schnitzer in 1875 Mehmed Emin Pasha (born Isaak Eduard Schnitzer, baptized Eduard Carl Oscar Theodor Schnitzer; March 28, 1840 – October 23, 1892) was an Ottoman physician of German Jewish origin, naturalist, and governor of the Egyp ...

. A prize had been offered for the best poem celebrating his return, the poem to be printed on silk and read at the banquet tendered to the returning hero. Ford, having just completed her first season on the stage, won the prize from English competitors. The poem was titled, "Back from the Dead". Ford wrote ''The Argyle Case'' and ''The Fourth Estate'' with

Harvey Jerrold O'Higgins Harvey Jerrold O'Higgins (November 14, 1876 – February 28, 1929) was a Canadian-born novelist and journalist. Biography He was born in London, Ontario, in 1876. He studied in the University of Toronto from 1893 to 1897 but did not graduate. He ...

and

Joseph Medill Patterson Joseph Medill Patterson (January 6, 1879 – May 26, 1946) was an American journalist, publisher and founder of the '' Daily News'' in New York. At the time of his death the ''Daily News'' maintained a Sunday circulation of 4.5 million copi ...

. They stated that Ford's amiability was proof that collaboration with her would inevitably end in mutual admiration. Ford stated that instead of the collaboration being a trial to the spirit, it was an absolute gain in the matter of time. “With two persons working the play is done in half the time,” she said. In fact, she and Joseph Medill Patterson wrote “The Fourth Estate” in nine days.Co-authoring ''The Argyle Case'', and ''

The Dummy "The Dummy" is episode 98 of the American television anthology series ''The Twilight Zone'' starring Cliff Robertson as a ventriloquist. It is not to be confused with a similar episode "Caesar and Me", in which Jackie Cooper plays a ventriloquis ...

'' determined her career as a writer. While on tour, she wrote monologues for the variety stage for six years. She finally stopped acting and took to writing. She called on Sarah Cowell LeMoyne, then a popular reader, and asked permission to write a monologue for her. When the monologue was completed, LeMoyne's need of it had passed, but she arranged for its sale, and Ford began writing a play for her with

Beatrice deMille Matilda Beatrice deMille (January 30, 1853 – October 8, 1923) (born Matilda Beatrice Samuel; also known as ''Beatrice C. deMille, Agnes Graham, Tillie Samuel, Mrs. Henry deMille)'' was an English-American play broker, screenwriter, playwright, ...

.Buck, Julie. "Beatrice deMille." In Jane Gaines, Radha Vatsal, and Monica Dall’Asta, eds. Women Film Pioneers Project. Center for Digital Research and Scholarship. New York, NY: Columbia University Libraries, 2013. Web. September 27, 2013
link
It was that play, ''The Greatest Thing in the World'', in which LeMoyne came into notability. It was her fortune to write plays for those in the early careers.

Kyrle Bellew Harold Kyrle Money Bellew (28 March 1850 – 2 November 1911) was an English stage and silent film actor. He notably toured with Cora Brown-Potter in the 1880s and 1890s, and was cast as the leading man in many stage productions alongside ...

, returned after 12 years absence from the United States, came to play to a new generation and to make a new public for himself in ''A Gentleman from France''. It was in Ford's ''Audrey'' that

Eleanor Robson Eleanor Robson, (born 1969) is a British Assyriologist and academic. She is Professor of Ancient Middle Eastern History at University College London. She is a former chair of the British Institute for the Study of Iraq and a Quondam fellow of A ...

began her best work. HarrietFordBeatricedeMille1900

Ford wrote her first monologue for the reader Evelyne Hilliard. It was met with such success that immediately a second and third were written. They were recited by Hilliard at both public and private readings in London drawing rooms, and also in the

White House The White House is the official residence and workplace of the president of the United States. It is located at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW in Washington, D.C., and has been the residence of every U.S. president since John Adams in 1800. ...

. So many requests were made for the different episodes that Ford was encouraged to collect them under one cover. "Me an' Methuselar and Other Episodes " was the result. It contained ten episodes which ranged from intensely dramatic to pathetic and to the most witty and amusing. Each episode was a complete story treated with a human interest and fine delineation of character. Ford was the author of several plays. The first was ''The Greatest Thing in the World'', co-authored with Matilda Beatrice deMille. There followed ''A Gentleman of France'', the “last of the swashbucklers,” as the author irreverently classified it, and described its "slaughter of eighteen”; the dramatization of ''Audrey'', ''The Fourth Estate'', ''The Little Brother of the Rich'', ''The Argyle Case'', and ''The Dummy''. They ran the gamut from the psychological problem play to the then-modern detection of crime drama, including the romantic and business plays and the play of politics.

Personal life

She married Dr. Forde Morgan (1865–1938) in 1930; he was a medical director of Sterling Products Company. Harriet Ford Morgan died December 12, 1949, in

. Her papers are held at the

New York Public Library The New York Public Library (NYPL) is a public library system in New York City. With nearly 53 million items and 92 locations, the New York Public Library is the second largest public library in the United States (behind the Library of Congress ...

Selected works

* ''Me an' Methuselar, and other episodes, '', 1895 * ''The island impossible'', 1899 (with Katharine Pyle) * ''The greatest thing in the world : a play in four'', 1899/1900 (with Matilda Beatrice deMille) * ''"The honour of the humble" : a drama adapted from the French of Pierre Newsky '', 1902 (with Pierre Newsky) * ''A gentleman of France; a drama'', 1902 (with Stanley John Weyman) * ''Audrey'', 1903 (with Ernest F. Bodington, Eugene Wiley Presbrey, Henry Hadley, Mary Johnston) * ''Jacqueline. A play'', 1909 (with Caroline King Duer) * ''"Kidnapped"'', 1913 (with

Harvey J. O'Higgins Harvey Jerrold O'Higgins (November 14, 1876 – February 28, 1929) was a Canadian-born novelist and journalist. Biography He was born in London, Ontario, in 1876. He studied in the University of Toronto from 1893 to 1897 but did not graduate. He ...

) * ''The Wrong Number'', 1921, (with Harvey J O'Higgins) * ''Where Julia rules; a comedy in four acts'', 1923 (with Caroline Duer) * ''The Bride. A comedy in one act'', 1924 * ''The happy hoboes, a comedy in one act'', 1928 (with Althea Sprague Tucker) * ''Where Julia rules'' * ''Youth must be served : comedy in one act'', 1927 * ''Mr. Susan Peters, comedy in one act'', 1928 * ''Wanted-Money. A comedy in one act.'', 1928 (with Althea Sprague Tucker) * ''In-laws'', 1928 * ''What Imagination Will Do. Comedy in one act.'', 1928 * ''Mysterious money, a comedy in three acts'', 1929 * ''What are Parents for? A play in one act.'', 1930 * ''The divine afflatus, a comedy in one act'', 1931 * ''Are men superior? : Farce-comedy in one act'', 1932 * ''Heroic Treatment. A comedy in one act.'', 1933 * ''Youth must be served'' * ''The Argyle case, a play in four acts'' (with Harvey J O'Higgins) * '' A Lady in Love'' (with Caroline Duer)

References

Attribution

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Bibliography

* * * * * * *

External links

*
Plays by Harriet Ford and Harvey J. O'Higgins on Great War Theatre
{{DEFAULTSORT:Ford, Harriet 1863 births 1949 deaths 19th-century American actresses 19th-century American women writers 19th-century American dramatists and playwrights 20th-century American women writers 20th-century American dramatists and playwrights American stage actresses American Academy of Dramatic Arts alumni People from Seymour, Connecticut Actresses from Connecticut Screenwriters from Connecticut 20th-century American screenwriters