In 1868, British actress Frances Anne “Fanny” Kemble gave a reading of “As You Like It” to benefit the Lenox Library. The event was staged at the county courthouse in Lenox; Judge Julius Rockwell lamented the inadequacy of the courtroom. Indeed, what is now the library’s Dome Room was a far cry from London’s Covent Garden, where Kemble made her 1830 debut as Juliet. From theaters up and down the Atlantic Seaboard, to the drawing rooms of her Berkshire friends, Fanny’s feet avoided one set of boards: the abolitionist’s soapbox, until history gave her no choice.
Fanny Kemble’s face to face experience with those who lacked the “bare name of freemen” shook her to the core, and contributed to her tumultuous divorce from Pierce Butler, owner of several hundred enslaved people.
Using material from the Lenox Library’s archival collections and other primary sources, Local History Librarian Amy Lafave will give a presentation on Kemble’s experience on her husband’s Georgia plantation, and her subsequent Lenox refuge.
This is a hybrid presentation. Zoom link:
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/81354075685
This program is supported by federal funds provided by the Institute of Museum and Library Services and administered by the Mass. Board of Library Commissioners.