Infelicia.
The Last Book By The “Deborah” Of The American Stage
Menken, Adah Isaacs. Infelicia. Philadelphia: J.B. Lippincott, 1868.
12mo.; delicate portrait of Menken on half-title, facing facsimile of note to Menken from Charles Dickens; brown uncoated endpapers; blue cloth, stamped in gilt with Menken’s fascimile signature; lightly used, front cover lightly, subtly darkened; else quite good; bookplate.
First American edition of Menken’s important volume of poetry, published just one week after the author’s death at forty-three. A contemporary photo, removed from a magazine, of Menken as the scantily-clad Mazeppa is loosely inserted into this volume.
Despite her successful acting career, Menken identified most as a literary figure. She counted Dickens, Dumas, Longfellow, and Swinburne as close friends, and she was especially attached to Walt Whitman, whom she regarded as a sort of mentor—Menken was amongst the few daring authors who followed Whitman’s model of blank verse.
The appearance of Infelicia was noted, and controversial: noted because Menken died the week before publication after a brief illness; controversial due to Menken’s employment of the free verse form and due the subjects of Menken’s poems, which spoke proudly of a Jewish-identified female experience (see, for instance, “My Heritage,” in which Menken rages at having had to “think, and speak, and act, not for my pleasure, / But others”; see also “Judith” and the famous “Hear, O Israel!,” all in this volume). Many critics damned this, Menken’s final work, although William Rossetti declared that the volume had “touches of genius.” Menken still awaits a full-fledged feminist reappraisal of her work.
Called “sincere expressions of a troubled heart” they went through several editions over the next five years. She was a great admirer of Whitman and imitated his free cadences. Adah Isaacs Menken was, during her brief career on stage, one of the highest paid performers in the world. She was the toast of two continents and had men at her feet – not to mention at her dressing room door. Her performances were designed to show off her beauty and especially her figure and their reception can surely be seen as a reaction to Victorian prudery. A more lasting legacy, however, is this book of verse. The overwhelming sorrow and loneliness in Menken’s verse might remind the reader of another American actress, Marilyn Monroe who died early and alone, despite being sought after by thousands. (NAW II, pp. 528-529)
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