Ada Clare (whose given name was Jane McIlheny) was born in South Carolina.
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Clare opens her column with a discussion of Miss Prescott's new book, Sir Rohan's Ghost and continues her discussion of the same author's serial, the "Amber Gods." Clare expresses her admiration for the serial as well as her attachment to the story's hero. Clare includes brief discussions of Misrepresentation by Mrs. Drury, and Fitz James O'Brien's story, "Mother of Pearl," criticizing it only for using the currently popular plot device of attributing part of the story's crisis to the use of hasheesh. Clare encourages writers to explore the employment of other drugs and substances at this critical point in a story. Clare discusses The Heart of Mid Loathian at Laura Keene's Theatre, which leads her to a discussion of the "Lie" and "Liars." Clare argues for the admiration of Truth and discusses the prevalence of lying among members of the opposite sex, citing the false statements often made by men about women. Clare argues for cooperation and honesty between the sexes and firmly condemns those committed to lying and misrepresentation.
Clare discusses The Heart of Mid Lothian at Laura Keene's Theatre and Keene's performance (2).
Clare discusses O'Brien's "Mother of Pearl" in the February issue of Harper's Magazine. While she likes the story in general, she feels that choice of the drug hasheesh in the crisis of a story has become unoriginal (2).
An electronic version of this text was previously available in CONTENTdm and has been migrated to Lehigh University's Digital Collections. Reconstruction of direct links to individual articles is in progress. In the meantime, browse issues of the Saturday Press in the Vault at Pfaff's Digital Collection. Page images of The New York Saturday Press were scanned from microfilm owned by Emory University, which was made from original copies held by the Historical Society of Pennsylvania.
Though much of her early life, including her real name and exact date of birth, remains in shadow, Laura Keene is thought to have come from a well-to-do background.
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