Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Menken, Adah Isaacs
MENKEN, ADAH ISAACS, formerly Adelaide McCord (1835–1868), actress and writer, the daughter of James McCord, a merchant, was born 15 June 1835 at Chartrain, subsequently known as Milneburg, in the state of Louisiana. Her father died when she was a child, and Adelaide McCord and her younger sister became engaged as the Theodore Sisters at the Opera House, New Orleans. A life in Appleton's ‘Cyclopædia of American Biography’ makes no mention of the name McCord, says she was born a Jewess, and was called Dolores Adios Fuertes. After dancing at the Tacon Theatre in Havana, she played in various towns in Texas, and is said to have been captured by Red Indians and to have escaped. In New Orleans and Cincinnati she did considerable work as a journalist, and published her first poem. She also taught languages, French, Greek, and Latin, at a ladies' school in the former city. On 3 Aug. 1856 she married Alexander Isaac Menken, a Jew, whose religion she adopted, calling herself thenceforth Adah Isaacs Menken. At the Varieties Theatre, New Orleans, she appeared as an actress in Milman's ‘Fazio.’ She next played in Cincinnati and Louisville, and accompanied W. H. Crisp's company through the southern states. The intervals of acting were passed in studying sculpture and writing in newspapers. She was divorced from Menken in Nashville. A second marriage, with John C. Heenan, a prize-fighter known as ‘The Benicia Boy,’ contracted in New York on 3 April 1859, was unhappy. In New York she played at the National and Old Bowery Theatres in dramas such as the ‘Soldier's Daughter’ and the ‘French Spy,’ making her first appearance in June 1859, and she then accompanied James E. Murdoch through the southern states, playing leading business, and essaying even Lady Macbeth. Murdoch suggested to her the expediency of turning to account her fine physique, and on 7 June 1861 she made, at the Green Street Theatre, Albany, her first appearance as Mazeppa. In various American cities, including New York, these performances had much success. In October 1861 she went through a form of marriage with R. H. Newell, known as Orpheus C. Kerr, and, a year later, was divorced from Heenan. In April 1864 she sailed for London, appearing on 3 Oct. as Mazeppa at Astley's Theatre, when she had what might in part be considered a ‘succès de scandale.’ A failure was experienced when, at the same house, she appeared on 9 Oct. 1865 as Leon in Brougham's ‘Child of the Sun.’ While in England she contracted intimacies with many men of letters, including Charles Dickens (to whom, by permission, she dedicated in 1868 her volume of poems called ‘Infelicia’), Charles Reade, Mr. A. C. Swinburne, and many others. On her visit to Paris, where she appeared on 30 Dec. 1866 at the Gaîté in ‘Les Pirates de la Savane’ of Bourgeois and Dugué, she became closely associated with the elder Dumas and with Théophile Gautier. She had meanwhile been divorced from Newell, and married on 21 Aug. 1866 James Barclay. In June 1868, while in Paris rehearsing, she was taken ill, and on 10 Aug. died in the Jewish faith. Her remains were buried in the cemetery of Père la Chaise, her tomb bearing the motto ‘Thou knowest.’ She also published about 1856, under the pseudonym ‘Indigena,’ a volume of poems entitled ‘Memories,’ which is not in the British Museum. In December 1858 she gave by desire in the synagogue, Louisville, a sermon on Judaism, a subject on which also she wrote. A new illustrated edition of ‘Infelicia’ appeared in 1888.
Those favoured with the intimacy of Menken thought highly of her. Her poems have little lyrical quality, but convey pleasant and moving aspirations, to which the conditions of her life imparted added significance. As an actress she had few charms, and her performance of Mazeppa, though it involved some difficulty and risk, is to be regarded rather as a study of physique than as a performance. Many photographs of her are extant. One presenting her in company with Dumas had considerable vogue. A second, showing her with Mr. Swinburne, is less common. An engraved portrait is prefixed to ‘Infelicia.’ She possessed a good figure, and a face which was strongly marked, and striking rather than handsome.
[Most details as to the life of Menken are derived from the Memoir prefixed to the illustrated edition of her Infelicia, 1888, and from Appleton's Cyclopædia of American Biography. A biography, obviously inspired, prefaces the text of Les Pirates de la Savane, Paris, 1867. The two accounts are contradictory on many points. Some few particulars are obtained from the Era Almanack for 1868, Scott and Howard's E. L. Blanchard, the Theatrical Journal, from personal knowledge, and from private information.]