Kaaterskill Books

Rejection leads to the "First Free Theatre in the World"

Kennerley, Mitchell.

[Typed Letter Signed] New York Publisher Mitchell Kennerley Rejects Benjamin Butler Davenport's "The Doubter's Faith".

New York: 1914. 1 sheet. 7.5 x 9 inches. Very good, folded, penciled notation along top edge, contents clean. Item #44789

Dated April 8th, 1914, on letterhead for "The Forum" periodical. Publisher Mitchell Kennerley writes to Benjamin Butler Davenport, to explain that he cannot publish his play, "'The Doubter's Faith', as my list is very crowded at present. The delay in informing you of this decision was due to the illness of Mr. Edwin Bjorkman, Editor of the Modern Drama Series, to whom I submitted the manuscript."

Mitchell Kennerley (1878-1950) "At 18 he came to to New York to manage the office of a British publisher. In 1900 he became the business manager of The Smart Set. The following four years he spent as editor and proprietor of The Readers Magazine. From 1910 to 1912 he published the Papyrus and from 1910 to 1916 The Forum. During this period he was also a managing director of the printing firm of William Edward Rudge. In 1913 he was arrested and acquitted of the charge of sending an objectionable book through the mails. He became president in 1916 of the Anderson Galleries where he remained until 1929 when the firm was purchased by the American Art Association. He returned to the galleries during 1937-1938 as president, succeeding Hiram Parke who joined with a former vice-president, Otto Bernet, to form the Parke-Bernet Galleries. Kennerley left in 1939 to become involved in The Book Collectors Club of America. The following year he started the Lexington Avenue Bookshop." (Mitchell Kennerley papers, Manuscripts and Archives Division, The New York Public Library).

Benjamin Butler Davenport (1871-1958) playwright, producer, actor, and theater manager, took the "Doubter's Faith" into his own hands, as it opened at the Bramwell Playhouse in 1919, a small theatrical venue opened by Davenport himself in 1915. "Davenport then decided to dedicate his life “to spreading the idea that nobody should pay for theatre admissions… . We have free schools, free art museums, free symphony concerts and libraries. Why not theatres?” The Bramhall Playhouse closed and reopened on 17 January 1923 as the Davenport Theatre, “the First Free Theatre in the World,” supported only by voluntary contributions. Except for a brief absence in 1928 to play The Passing of the Third Floor Back at Wallack’s theater (his final commercial theater experience), Davenport was happily “at home” on East Twenty-seventh street for the rest of his life." (ANB).

Price: $100.00