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Account of the Terrific and Fatal Riot at the New-York Astor Place Opera House, On the night of May 10th, 1849.

New York: Published by H. M. Ranney, 1849. 8vo (9” x 5.875”), printed wrappers, wood engraving on rear wrapper. 32 pp. CONDITION: Very good, front wrapper detached.

A highly partisan account, including eyewitness descriptions, of the infamous Astor Place Riot—a deadly display of nativist sentiment, sparked by a rivalry between a beloved American thespian, Edwin Forrest, and his British rival, William Macready.

Edwin Forrest was born in Philadelphia in 1806, and made his theatrical debut at the age of eleven as a last-minute stand-in. Determined to pursue a career on the stage but unable to compete with the favored British talent already thriving in Philadelphia, his first theatrical contract brought him to new cities and more rugged terrain in the Ohio and Mississippi River Valleys. After a subsequent stint in New Orleans, he played Othello at the Bowery Theatre in New York—his first significant success. Forrest traveled to Britain twice, receiving a warm welcome (and even a dinner at the Garrick Club) during his first visit, but ultimately fell out of favor with the British public after stoking animosity with his former friend William Macready, a beloved Shakespearean actor. In America—where Macready also toured—the dispute became a lightning rod for the growing senses of nativism and class-alienation that characterized Anglo-American relations in the mid-1800s and divided fans between the home-grown and the British stars. Hostility swelled into one-upmanship between the actors and rotten-egg-throwing on the part of Forrest’s fans, and culminated in the Astor Place Riot on May 10th, 1849, in which some thirty rioters died and many more were injured. Macready slipped quietly away to England, and Forrest’s success continued unabated.

The account offered here details the soured relationship between Forrest and Macready; includes eyewitness accounts from rioters; reprints an 1864 statement by Forrest regarding the beginning of the quarrel, and more.

Item #9658

Price: $225.00

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