Mr. Gillette's work, and the form of realism which he has contributed to the stage in America is distinctly important and distinctly American.
Esmeralda, Held by the Enemy, Too Much Johnson, and Secret Service have been published by Samuel French and All the Comforts of Home by Dick and Fitzgerald. Electricity appeared in The Drama, for December, 1913, and will be reprinted shortly by Samuel French. A Legal Wreck has been published in novel form. For a lecture by Mr. Gillette "On the Illusion of the First Time in Acting" see the publications of the Dramatic Museum of Columbia University, Series 2, Vol. 1, New York, 1915.
For biographical details see Who's Who in the Theatre (1912), and for information concerning the plays, Plays of the Present, by J. B. Clapp and E. F. Edgett, New York, 1902, to which the present editor acknowledges his indebtedness, as also to the courtesy of Mr. Francis E. Reid, of the Empire Theatre. The editor, however, is indebted in the largest measure to Mr. Gillette himself who has furnished him accurate information concerning the dates and circumstances of production of the plays, much of which has hitherto been unavailable in print.
For criticism see Norman Hapgood, The Stage in America, 1901, Chap. 3, pp. 61-79.
The text has been revised with the greatest care by Mr. Gillette, and the alterations have been so marked that this edition of Secret Service may almost be looked upon as a new creation. It represents, so far as is possible in print, the actual stage production as Mr. Gillette directs it. For this reason, although its form is different from that of the other plays in the volume, the editor has reprinted the manuscript exactly as Mr. Gillette prepared it, feeling sure that readers of the book will be interested in seeing the interpretation of his own work by a dramatist who is also an actor and stage director.
For permission to use the text the editor is indebted to Mr. Gillette and to Samuel French.
