Edith Juliet Rich Isaacs (March 27, 1878 - January 10, 1956) was an American theatre critic.

Biography

A native of

Milwaukee Milwaukee ( ), officially the City of Milwaukee, is both the most populous and most densely populated city in the U.S. state of Wisconsin and the county seat of Milwaukee County, Wisconsin, Milwaukee County. With a population of 577,222 at th ...

, Isaacs was the daughter of Adolph Walter and Rosa Sidenberg Rich, and was the third daughter in a family of six children; she had four sisters and one brother. Her father was born in

Hungary Hungary ( hu, Magyarország ) is a landlocked country in Central Europe. Spanning of the Carpathian Basin, it is bordered by Slovakia to the north, Ukraine to the northeast, Romania to the east and southeast, Serbia to the south, Croa ...

and came to the United States under the auspices of

Carl Schurz Carl Schurz (; March 2, 1829 – May 14, 1906) was a German revolutionary and an American statesman, journalist, and reformer. He immigrated to the United States after the German revolutions of 1848–1849 and became a prominent member of the ne ...

, while her mother was from a family with roots in Breslau. She studied at

Downer College Downer College was a women's college in Fox Lake, Wisconsin, chartered in 1855 and opening in September, 1856. History It was founded in 1854 as Wisconsin Female College under the auspices of the Wisconsin Baptist Convention to prepare women for mi ...

before taking a position with the ''

Milwaukee Sentinel The ''Milwaukee Journal Sentinel'' is a daily morning broadsheet printed in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, where it is the primary newspaper. It is also the largest newspaper in the state of Wisconsin, where it is widely distributed. It is currentl ...

'', for whose literary section she wrote until 1904. She then moved to

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the most densely populated major city in the U ...

to freelance, and in 1913 became drama critic for ''

Ainslee's Magazine ''Ainslee's Magazine'' was an American literary periodical published from 1897 to December 1926. It was originally published as a humor magazine called ''The Yellow Kid'', based on the popular comic strip character. It was renamed ''Ainslee's'' ...

''. In 1918 she joined the staff of ''

Theatre Arts Theatre or theater is a collaborative form of performing art that uses live performers, usually actors or actresses, to present the experience of a real or imagined event before a live audience in a specific place, often a stage. The perform ...

''; from 1922 until 1946 she served as its editor, significantly raising its profile and turning it into a monthly publication, instead of a quarterly one. Active in the promotion of American theatre, from 1935 until 1939 she was involved with the

Federal Theatre Project The Federal Theatre Project (FTP; 1935–1939) was a theatre program established during the Great Depression as part of the New Deal to fund live artistic performances and entertainment programs in the United States. It was one of five Federal P ...

; she worked with other organizations as well during her career. She was succeeded at the helm of ''Theatre Arts'' by

Rosamund Gilder Rosamond Gilder (born Janet Rosamond de Kay Gilder, 1891 - September, 1986) was an American theater critic. Gilder was a native of Marion, Massachusetts, daughter of writer Richard Watson Gilder. She was raised in New York City in artistic sur ...

. In 1904, Isaacs married lawyer and composer Lewis Montefiore Isaacs, with whom she had collaborated on an operetta for children. The couple were the parents of three, and lived happily until his death in 1944. Eventually bedridden due to arthritis, Edith Isaacs was forced to move into a nursing home in White Plains in 1951. Visitors in her later years included

Martha Graham Martha Graham (May 11, 1894 – April 1, 1991) was an American modern dancer and choreographer. Her style, the Graham technique, reshaped American dance and is still taught worldwide. Graham danced and taught for over seventy years. She ...

, who helped her to develop movements and other techniques to alleviate her suffering. She died in White Plains after a stroke. In 1958 a Theatre Arts Project for

East Harlem East Harlem, also known as Spanish Harlem or and historically known as Italian Harlem, is a neighborhood of Upper Manhattan, New York City, roughly encompassing the area north of the Upper East Side and bounded by 96th Street to the south, F ...

was established in her memory.

Selected works

Books which she wrote or edited included: *''Theatre: Essays on the Arts of the Theatre'' (1927) *''Plays of American Life and Fantasy'' (1929) *''The Negro in the American Theatre'' (1947)

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Isaacs, Edith 1878 births 1956 deaths American theater critics American women critics American women journalists 20th-century American journalists 20th-century American women writers American people of Hungarian-Jewish descent American people of Polish-Jewish descent Milwaukee-Downer College alumni Writers from Milwaukee Journalists from Wisconsin Journalists from New York City