Samuel French (1821–1898) was an American entrepreneur who, together with British actor, playwright and theatrical manager
Thomas Hailes Lacy, pioneered in the field of
theatrical
Theatre or theater is a collaborative form of performing art that uses live performers, usually actors to present experiences of a real or imagined event before a live audience in a specific place, often a stage. The performers may communic ...
publishing
Publishing is the activities of making information, literature, music, software, and other content, physical or digital, available to the public for sale or free of charge. Traditionally, the term publishing refers to the creation and distribu ...
and the
licensing
A license (American English) or licence ( Commonwealth English) is an official permission or permit to do, use, or own something (as well as the document of that permission or permit).
A license is granted by a party (licensor) to another par ...
of plays.
Biography
French founded his publishing business in New York City in 1854. In 1859, he visited London, where he met Lacy, who had given up the stage and been active as a theatrical bookseller since the mid-1840s. Lacy, who had removed his shop from Wellington Street,
Covent Garden to 89
Strand in 1857, had also started publishing acting editions of dramas. ''Lacy's Acting Edition of Plays'', published between 1848 and 1873, would eventually run to 99 volumes containing 1,485 individual pieces.
French and Lacy became partners, each acting as the other's agent across the Atlantic. In 1872, French decided to take up permanent residence in London, leaving his son
Thomas Henry French in charge of the New York business. When Lacy retired in 1873, he sold out to French for £5,000. Lacy died in the same year, and French finally established his name as the most important theatrical publisher in England. At the time of his own death in 1898, almost all renowned English playwrights of the present and recent past had been represented by his company.
See also
*
Samuel French, Inc.
References
External links
SamuelFrench.comSamuel French Ltd London
{{DEFAULTSORT:French, Samuel
1821 births
1898 deaths
American publishers (people)
19th-century American businesspeople