Anderson was educated at the Ursuline convent and the all-girl Presentation Academy in Louisville. She was an unenthusiastic pupil except for an interest in reading and acting Shakespeare. She also took private lessons in music, dancing and literature. Encouraged by her stepfather, Dr Hamilton Griffin, at 14 she was sent to New York for ten lessons with the actor George Vandenhoff, her only professional training.[2]
In 1883, after starring in an American production of W. S. Gilbert's Pygmalion and Galatea, she went on the London stage at the Lyceum Theatre, remaining in England for six years to perform to much acclaim including at the Shakespeare Memorial Theatre in Stratford-on-Avon. Her first season there, she starred in Gilbert's Comedy and Tragedy as well as in Romeo and Juliet in 1884.[4]
Mary Anderson as Juliet in "Romeo and Juliet", ca. 1883–1890. Cabinet Card Collection, Boston Public Library
In 1887 in London she appeared in The Winter's Tale in the double role of Perdita and Hermione (the first actress to include this innovation).[1] This production ran to 160 performances, and was taken back to the United States. She invited writer William Black to appear in the production, but, even in a non-speaking role, he froze up and interrupted the performance.[5] In 1889, however, she collapsed on stage due to severe nervous exhaustion during a performance at Albaugh's Theatre in Washington.[3] Disbanding her company, she announced her retirement at the age of 30.[6] Some commentators, particularly in the British press, ascribed this turn of events to hostile press reviews on her return to the U.S.[7] The author Willa Cather went further and blamed a specifically hurtful review from a close friend.[8]
As Galatea in W. S. Gilbert's Pygmalion and Galatea, 1883
Later life
Ordered to rest after her breakdown, Mary Anderson visited England. In 1890 she married Antonio Fernando de Navarro.[10][11] She became known as Mary Anderson de Navarro. They settled at Court Farm[12] in the Cotswolds, Broadway, Worcestershire, where she cultivated an interest in music and became a noted hostess with a distinguished circle of musical, literary and ecclesiastical guests. She also gave birth to three children, one son who died at birth, another son, Alma Jose "Toty" Maria de Navarro and a daughter, Mary Elena de Navarro.[13][14][15][16]
A devout Roman Catholic, she had a chapel built in her attic, with stained-glass windows designed by Paul Woodroffe. She has been cited as a model for characters in the Mapp and Lucia novels of E F Benson, either the operatic soprano Olga Bracely [17][18] or Lucia herself,[19][20] as well as the prototype for the heroine of William Black's novel The Strange Adventures of a House-Boat.[20]
She resisted encouragements to return to the theatre, but did a number of fund-raising performances during World War I in Worcester, Stratford and London. The latter included roles as Galatea, Juliet and Clarice in W. S. Gilbert's play Comedy and Tragedy.[21] She published two books of her memories, the 1896 A Few Memories[3] and the 1936 A Few More Memories, and collaborated with Robert Smythe Hichens on a 1911 New York stage adaptation of his novel, The Garden of Allah.[citation needed]
Death
She died at her home in Broadway, Worcestershire, in 1940, aged 80.[22] She was survived by her son and daughter.
The Mary Anderson Theatre was the oldest theatre on Louisville's 4th Street. It opened in 1907 as a vaudeville house, but two years later began to screen movies. The theatre closed in 1972 and was converted into office space.[citation needed]
Land donated by Anderson in Mount St. Francis, Indiana to the Conventual Franciscan Friars is now the Mount Saint Francis Center for Spirituality. The center serves as the headquarters for the Province of Our Lady of Consolation and home to the Mary Anderson Center, an artist colony. In 1989, the portion of US Route 150 that adjoins the donated property was named the Mary Anderson Memorial Highway.[23]
The house and farm that Mary and Antonio Navarro purchased and extended in the town of Broadway, Court Farm, is recognised as hosting one of the best preserved Edwardian gardens.[12][24] It was left to her son, Toty de Navarro, who lived there with his wife, Dorothy, their son Michael and Dorothy's long-time Cambridge friend, Gertrude Caton Thompson. As in the years when Mary lived there, it was often filled with visiting artists and musicians, including Myra Hess and a young Jacqueline du Pré.[25]
^The Kingdom of Art: Willa Cather's First Principles and Critical Statements, ed. Bernice Slote, Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 1966. Internet Archive
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