Passing Performances : Queer Readings of Leading Players in American Theater History

Whitman watched Booth preform at the Bowery Theater.

"Clare (born Jane McElheny) had acquired the title 'Queen of Bohemia' (noted editor and occasional escort Henry Clapp was Bohemia's acknowledged 'king') or, as mutual friend Walt Whitman dubbed her, the 'New Woman.' Clare encouraged Menken's writing and excelled at it herself. She was a popular, well-published cultural observer and journalist for The Saturday Press. Hindered by a weak voice, she was much less successful as an actress, although she persisted in periodically taking stabs at the stage. Whitman would recall Clare's 'gay, easy, sunny, free, loose but not ungood life'" (75).

"The notoriety of [Adah Menken and Ada Clare], who are usually mentioned in connection with each other, combined with Clare's scandalous lack of shame in bearing a child out of wedlock, their membership in the country's best-known literary circles, and the supposed proclivities of subcultural bohemia of the time, generated many questions about their sexual desires" (76).

"Two major American literary critics, William Dean Howells and James Gibbons Huneker, published widely read eulogies. Whether it was merely coincidental or wheter the Shuberts intentionally sought to exploit Ibsen's death, it certainly brought attention to their new star" (132).