Ira Aldridge: The Last Years, 1855–1867 by Bernth Lindfors (review)

Bernth Lindfors's Ira Aldridge: The Last Years, 1855–1867 is a fitting conclusion to the author's four-volume, in-depth biography of the African American expatriate actor Ira Aldridge, who spent most of his career in the British Isles and in Europe. Kate Roark, in her review of the first three volumes, called Lindfors's books "a gloriously deep history" (THS 35 [2016], 363). That assessment is certainly accurate, and Lindfors deservedly won the Theatre Library Association's 2016 Freedley Special Jury Prize for the work, which is the culmination of decades of research spanning multiple continents and myriad languages (this volume alone required Lindfors to utilize thirty-eight translators working in eleven foreign languages).

The book is essentially an archive in miniature, with scores of letters, published reviews, and personal accounts reproduced fully. These materials take up roughly a quarter of Lindfors's text, providing a wealth of primary source material for future generations of researchers, as well as thorough documentation as to the archives where materials can be found. At times, the examples significantly outweigh Lindfors's own analysis: chapter 2 consists of five pages of reproduced documents about Aldridge's trial for seducing a married young woman plus two pages of Lindfors's own writing. Furthermore, the book is gorgeously illustrated, featuring reproductions of playbills, newspaper illustrations, caricatures, photographs, lithographs, and even Aldridge's certificate of marriage to his second wife.

Ira Aldridge is certainly deserving of such an in-depth study. As Lindfors notes in his introduction, Aldridge was loved by audiences, a "popular performer in a wide range of tragedies, melodramas, and racial farces" (1), and on his first continental tour, the subject of Lindfors's third volume in the biography, he had earned from critics and noble patrons "more honors, awards, decorations, and medals than any actor of his day had ever received" (3). Furthermore, Aldridge was immensely well-paid for his skill as a performer and the audience that his celebrity could draw; in 1857, he earned what would be roughly $381,000 in today's currency for "eight nights' work spread over four weeks" in Stockholm (64).

Aldridge's exceptional success with popular audiences and many critics were not, as Lindfors repeatedly demonstrates, "color-blind assessments," since critics often commented, on the one hand, on "the irrelevance of race or skin color when assessing the ability of an actor" or, on the other, "attributed Aldridge's success to his race" (93). Several reviews quoted in the book utilize, quite casually and occasionally even seemingly in praise of Aldridge, racial slurs that are deeply offensive today.

Despite its immense value and testament to Lindfors's skill as an archival researcher, the book has significant flaws. At times, it verges on hagiography: Lindfors clearly admires Aldridge for his "perseverance and talent" (1) and can pejoratively dismiss critics who disliked Aldridge's performances. Moreover, the narrative can be quite repetitive; since Aldridge's repertoire was relatively stable, many chapters consist primarily of what he was performing, where, and the critical response. This repetitiveness can perhaps best be illustrated by the titles of chapters 7 through 17: "A Short Break," "The Third Continental Tour," "Home Again," "The Fourth Continental Tour," "The Fifth Continental Tour," "The Sixth Continental Tour," "Taking a Break," "The Seventh Continental Tour," "Another Break," "The Eight Continental Tour," and "The Ninth Continental Tour."

Such flaws are outweighed by moments that can make a reader gasp at encountering in theatre history moments and documents that illuminate the life of such a noteworthy performer, moments that remain clearly relevant in today's world. Frequently, these revelations come directly from the primary sources Lindfors quotes. For example, Aldridge, sounding not unlike twentieth- and twenty-first-century civil rights activists, was himself keenly aware of the conscious battle against racism that his race and celebrity allowed him to pursue. In a letter dated...