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Granville Barker: A Secret Life

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Harley Granville Barker was a leading and legendary actor, director, and playwright of the early twentieth century who gave up most of his public activities after 1918 when he married Helen Huntington. The mystery of why he retired from public life is the puzzle this book presumes to tackle.

The author tries to make the case that Granville Barker withdrew from public life because he sensed a danger it could destroy his private life, and not because his rich new wife provided him with a life of luxury--a luxury he could not refuse since it provided the opportunity to write.

In fact it seems the two of them led a productive life together, translating--as a team--plays from Spanish and writing---each on his own--stories and plays.

The book is a typical academic exercise and reads like a Ph.D. thesis with pictures. The nature of Granville Barker's talents as an actor and director--the basis for the legend--is not captured at all.

The title "A Secret Life" seems not so much a description of how Granville Barker lived--he hardly seems reclusive at all--as a come-on to sell the book. If there was a secret in his life, he has managed to keep it from Professor Salomon.