Woman of the Century/Emma V. Sheridan Fry

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2276599Woman of the Century — Emma V. Sheridan Fry

EMMA V. SHERIDAN FRY. FRY, Mrs. Emma V. Sheridan, actor and playwright, born in Painesville, Ohio, 1st October, 1864. Her mother was a niece of the well-known New England clergyman. Rev. Joseph W. Parker. Her father, General George A. Sheridan, made a fine record in the Army of the Cumberland during the late Civil war, and he has since won a national reputation as an orator. Emma has always been his friend, confidant and counselor, sharing his hopes, his disappointments and the joy of his successes. She is a graduate of Mrs. Hay's preparatory academy, Boston, Mass., and of the Normal College in New York City. Choosing the stage as the field of her work, she went through a thorough course of study and training in the New York Lyceum School of Acting. She began at the bottom and in six seasons she rose to the front rank among American actors. She has filled many important roles. In 1887 she played a notable engagement with Richard Mansfield in the Lyceum Theater, London, Lugland. Returning to America, she played a round of leading Shakespearean parts through the country with Thomas Keene. In 1889 she became leading lady in the Boston Museum. At the close of her second and most successful Season there her stage career was cut short by her marriage. She became the wife of Alfred Brooks Fry, Chief Engineer of the United States Treasury service, a member of the Loyal Legion and of the Order of the Cincinnati by heredity. During her stage experience Miss Sheridan had plied a busy pen and was well known as "Polly" in the "Dramatic Mirror," and by many articles, stories and verses published in the daily press, in magazines and in dramatic papers over her signature. Since her retirement from the stage Miss Sheridan, for she retains her signature, E. V. Sheridan, is devoting all her time to her pen, and she is in this second profession rapidly repeating the progress and notable success of her stage career. Miss Sheridan is quoted in her own country as an actor and a woman widely known, whose name has never been connected with scandal or notoriety. She is a member of the New England Woman's Press Association, and is president of the Alumni Association of the Lyceum School of Acting. On 23rd February, 1892, Richard Mansfield produced at the Garden Theatre, New York, a play by Miss Sheridan entitled, £10,000 a Year," founded on Dr. Warren's famous hook of the same name, and it won a flattering success.