Produced by William Boerst, Andre Lapierre and the Online
Distributed Proofreading Team at
Edited with Introduction, Commentand Annotated Bibliography
bySterling Andrus Leonard
Department of EnglishThe University of Wisconsin andThe Wisconsin High School
The Atlantic Monthly Press
Boston
The rights of production of these plays are in every casereserved by the authors or their representatives. No play can begiven publicly without an individual arrangement. The law doesnot, of course, prevent their reading in classrooms or theirproduction before an audience of a school or invited guests whereno fee is charged; but it is, naturally, more courteous to askpermission.
1921
The Atlantic Monthly Press
First impression, December, 1921
Second impression, April, 1922
Third impression, October, 1922
Printed in the United States of America
THE PHILOSOPHER OF BUTTERBIGGENS Harold Chapin
SPREADING THE NEWS Lady Gregory
THE BEGGAR AND THE KING Winthrop Parkhurst
TIDES George Middleton
ILE Eugene O'Neill
CAMPBELL OF KILMHOR J.A. Ferguson
THE SUN John Galsworthy
THE KNAVE OF HEARTS Louise Saunders
FAME AND THE POET Lord Dunsany
THE CAPTAIN OF THE GATE Beulah Marie Dix
GETTYSBURG Percy Mackaye
LONESOME-LIKE Harold Brighouse
RIDERS TO THE SEA John Millington Synge
THE LAND OF HEART'S DESIRE William Butler Yeats
RIDING TO LITHEND Gordon Bottomley
We are at present in the midst of a bewildering quantity ofplay-publication and production. The one-act play in particular,chiefly represented in this volume, appears to be taking theplace of that rather squeezed sponge, the short story, in thefavor of the reading public. Of course, this tendency has itsreaction in schoolrooms. One even hears of high-school classeswhich attempt to keep up with the entire output of such dramas inEnglish readings. If this is not merely an apologue, it iscertainly a horrible example. The bulk of current drama, as ofpublished matter generally, is not worthy the time of the Englishclass. Only what is measurably of rank, in truth and fineness,with the literature which has endured from past times can bedefended for use there. And we have too much that is both wellfitted to young people's keen interest and enjoyment, andbeautifully worthy as well, for time to be wasted upon the third-and fourth-rate.
Obviously, much of the best in modern play-writing has not beenincluded in