Arts and Letters

William Gillette was born at Hartford, Connecticut, July 24, 1855, and died there April 29, 1937. His father was Francis Gillette, United States Senator from Connecticut; his mother Elizabeth Daggett Hooker. He studied at Trinity College, Hartford, and took his B.A. at the Massachusetts Institute of Fine Arts.

He grew up in Hartford at the Farmington Avenue corner where dwelt Mark Twain, Harriet Beecher Stowe, Charles Dudley Warner; and he was filled with literary ambition, especially in the field of drama. During his boyhood he produced plays in the attic of his father's house; and his father, somewhat alarmed, tried to discourage him from a stage career. But while still hardly more than a boy he went to St. Louis and got a place in a stock company. For this work he received no pay but gained a knowledge of the theatre that came to fruition in later years in his triple success as playwright, actor, and producer.

He went with the stock company to New Orleans and when twenty years old returned to Hartford. His neighbor, Mark Twain, was deeply impressed by young Gillette's talents and encouraged his desire to become an actor. It was Mark Twain who secured a position for him at the Globe Theatre in Boston. Here Mr. Gillette made his first appearance September 5, 1875, in a play called Faint Heart Ne'er Won Fair Lady. One of his earliest great successes was his acting in The Private Secretary. Beginning with 1881 he was playing in his own compositions, among the most famous of which were Secret Service, Held by the Enemy, first produced in Brooklyn in 1886 and which made a tremendous success; Too Much Johnson, and his dramatization of Sherlock Holmes. In 1897 he appeared at the Adelphi Theatre in London in his own play, Secret Service, and repeated the success he had enjoyed in the United States. Very seldom has anyone connected with the theatre been so successful in the combination of writing plays, acting them, and producing them. He will always be remembered as the lean detective in Sherlock Holmes, a part for which he was adapted physically and mentally.

After he retired from the stage, he built a great castle at Hadlyme on the banks of the Connecticut River, which he called "The Seventh Sister." A good part of this castle he built with his own hands, showing great ingenuity in the construction of doors and locks and other pieces of furniture. He also built a railroad and drove the engine himself. In this castle he lived peacefully, with six pet cats. Although his original plays do not belong to literature, they showed extraordinary knowledge of the art of the playwright. I remember at a dinner given to Henry Arthur Jones in 1907 where nearly all the guests were dramatists or actors, Paul Armstrong rose and said that William Gillette was the greatest living American playwright.

In addition to the composition of many plays, after he retired to his castle he wrote an excellent detective novel called The Astounding Crime on Torrington Road. This book showed such talent in detective fiction that it is a pity he did not follow up its success.

William Gillette had an absolutely unique personality. His conversation and his letters were filled with wit and humor. Everyone who knew him loved him, but I think he found in his own mind the best company of all; for in the English edition of Who's Who where every person is requested to give his favorite recreation, Mr. Gillette wrote, "doesn't like any recreation whatever." Those who knew him best will understand that remark which was absolutely sincere. I think he was continually amused and entertained by his own mind.