Call Number:

Ms. Coll. 1755

Repository:

University of Pennsylvania: Kislak Center for Special Collections, Rare Books and Manuscripts

Extent:

.4 linear feet (1 box)

Language:

English

Preferred Citation:

Julie A. Herne photocopied typescript of biography of James A. Herne, circa 1950, Ms. Coll. 1755, Kislak Center for Special Collections, Rare Books and Manuscripts, University of Pennsylvania

Date:

1950

Creator:

Herne, Julie Adrienne, 1880-1955

Form:

Biographies and Typescripts

Abstract:

Julie A. Herne (1880-1955) was an actress, playwright, and screenplay writer who wrote James A. Herne: Actor and Dramatist: A Biography to document the life of her father, James A. Herne (1831-1901). This collection consists of a photocopied typescript, the original of which is held at the University of Maine.

Julie A. Herne was born on October 31, 1880, the daughter of James A. Herne (1839-1901), an actor and playwright, and Katherine Corcoran (1856-1943), an actress. Julie A. Herne acted and wrote a number of plays in the 1910s and 1920s; and then began working with motion picture, with her career in that field taking place primarily in the early 1920s. She continued to write throughout her career; but by the 1950 census (around the time that she wrote her biography of her father), she was listed as "unable to work." She died by her own hand on February 24, 1955.

Her father, James A. Herne, was an actor and a playwright. Some of his works include: Within an Inch of his Life with David Belasco (1879); Marriage by Moonlight with David Belasco (1879); Hearts of Oak with David Belasco (1879); The Minute Men (1886); Drifting Apart (1888); Margaret Fleming (1890); Shore Acres (1893); Art for Truth's Sake (essay) (1897); The Reverend Griffith Davenport (1899); and Sag Harbor (1900).

Julie Herne's biography was used by other biographers as source material, including John Perry, author of James A. Herne: The American Ibsen and possibly Arthur Hobson Quinn, who acquired the photocopied typescript and from whose collection it was removed.

This collection consists of a photocopied typescript of Julie A. Herne's biography of her father, James A. Herne. The typescript was written as three parts (part II starts on page 242 and part III starts on page 534). Box 1, Folder 1 includes a table of contents with chapter titles (I. Boyhood and Youth; II. A Young Man with a Future; etc.) and a forward in which Herne describes the number of requests she had for information about her father. Box 1, Folder 6 contains a bibliography of books and periodical articles.

It appears that this typescript was collected by Arthur Hobson Quinn who studied James A. Herne. The typescript provides a first hand account of Julie Herne's experiences with her father.