Auction 85 · Lot 25
Mordecai Manuel Noah. Group of four items relating to his play: The Wandering Boys or the Castle of Olival.
- Estimate
- $1,200–$1,800
- Hammer price
- $1,000
Historical auction record. Hammer prices exclude buyer’s premium and taxes.
author
(AMERICAN-JUDAICA)
Description
* (Sheet Music). The Boys of Switzerland, Ballad sung with great applause by Miss Matthews, in the Dramatic Romance of The Wandering Boys or the Castle of Olival. London, 1812.
* (Theater Handbill). Theatre, Leeds. …The Wandering Boys or the Castle of Olival. Leeds, 1831.
* John Kerr. The Wandering Boys or The Castle of Olival. A Romantic Drama in Two Acts. pp. 31. London, c. 1850.
* (Theater Handbill). New Chestnut Street Theatre. …The Wandering Boys. Philadelphia, 1866.
summary
Noah’s play “The Wandering Boys or the Castle of Olival” was first produced in Charleston in 1812 as ''Paul and Alexis, or the Orphans on the Rhine'' and then renamed by John Kerr. According to Jonathan Sarna, The Wandering Boys was ranked among the best of its genre and only the second American play to appear on the London stage, hence it represents the first play by an American Jew to appear on the London stage.
See Jonathan D. Sarna, Jacksonian Jew: The Two Worlds of Mordecai Noah (New York, 1981).