Misplaced Pages

Latest revision as of 21:07, 14 January 2025

Alice Kingsbury Cooley
Alice Kingsbury, by J. W. Winder & Co.
Born	Alice Madeline James December 31, 1840 Bristol, England
Died	November 3, 1910 Alameda, California, U.S.
Occupations	actress writer
Spouse(s)	Horace Kingsbury; Francis M. Cooley
Children	12
Signature

Alice Kingsbury Cooley (née James; after first marriage, Kingsbury; after second marriage, Cooley; 1839-1910) was a British-born American actress, author, and poet of New York City. She starred in stage plays in the U.S. and Canada. At first, she was known in San Francisco as a soubrette playing Fanchon, the Cricket; then later, as the mother of twelve children, who wrote books to fill up her time. Her literary works included a novel, a drama, and children's fiction.

Early life

Alice Madeline James was born December 31, 1840, in Bristol, England. Her parents were David Hawes James and Harriet (Bird) James. She came to the U.S. with her parents when a child, the family settling in Cincinnati, Ohio.

Career

Cooley made her stage debut in the early 1860s, winning considerable fame in San Francisco, California. She played throughout the country in various roles, winning distinction in Shakespeare's plays. She was characterized as a bright soubrette, the darling of the public. For several years, she was an actress in such plays as Fanchon, Juliette, Cupid at Play, Sleeping Bacchus, and others, starring in the U.S. and Canada.

Cooley was also a well known writer of prose and verse and had several volumes of her writings published. She was the author of a child's book entitled Ho for Elfland, which sold two thousand copies in San Francisco; and a work for adults entitled Asaph, an historical novel of ancient Jerusalem. Secrets Told included sarcasm on social questions.

Later in life, she was given a benefit at which she played her old role of "Fanchon," and one of her sons took the part of the stern father Barbeauld.

Personal life

In Cincinnati, she married Horace Kingsbury and became a stepmother to his three children from a previous marriage. She married secondly Francis M. Cooley; they had eight children including Frank Cooley, the actor, Earl Cooley, president of the San Francisco Galvanizing works; V. V. Cooley of Yuba City, California; Edward Cooley of Los Angeles; and Mrs. Sallie McKean of Alameda. After she retired to domestic life, raising a family, she modeled small shapes in clay, which were put into plaster. She was widowed a second time by 1889 when she was living in Seattle, Washington.

Alice Kingsbury Cooley died in Alameda, California, November 3, 1910, after a long period of illness.

Selected works

• Did she sin? an original and exciting drama in 5 acts. (Natchez, Miss., 1873)
• Ho! for Elf-land! (San Francisco, A. L. Bancroft & Company, 1878) (text)
• Secrets Told: With Twenty-Two Piquant Illustrations From Life (San Francisco, Alta California Printing House, 1879) (text)
• Asaph: An Historical Novel (New York, United States Book Company, 1890) (text)

References

1. ^ Hunt, Rockwell Dennis (1926). California and Californians. Lewis publishing Company. p. 158. Retrieved 14 January 2025. This article incorporates text from this source, which is in the public domain.
2. ^ Herringshaw, Thomas William (1898). Herringshaw's Encyclopedia of American Biography of the Nineteenth Century: Accurate and Succinct Biographies of Famous Men and Women in All Walks of Life who are Or Have Been the Acknowledged Leaders of Life and Thought of the United States Since Its Formation. American Publishers' Association. p. 247. Retrieved 14 January 2025. This article incorporates text from this source, which is in the public domain.
3. ^ Herringshaw, Thomas William (1914). American Blue-book of Biography: Prominent Americans of 1914. American Publishers Association. p. 240. Retrieved 14 January 2025.
4. ^ "ALICE KINGSBURY COOLEY, CALIFORNIA POET, DIES". Los Angeles Herald. 5 November 1910. Retrieved 14 January 2025 – via cdnc.ucr.edu. This article incorporates text from this source, which is in the public domain.
5. ^ Mighels, Ella Sterling; World's Columbian Exposition (1893). The story of the files; a review of Californian writers and literature. San Francisco: Cooperative Printing Co. pp. 29–30. Retrieved 14 January 2025 – via Internet Archive. This article incorporates text from this source, which is in the public domain.
6. ^ Seattle City Directory. R. L. Polk & Company, Incorporated. 1889. p. 354. Retrieved 14 January 2025. This article incorporates text from this source, which is in the public domain.
7. Library of Congress Copyright Office (1918). Dramatic Compositions Copyrighted in the United States, 1870 to 1916 ... U.S. Government Printing Office. p. 2288. Retrieved 14 January 2025. This article incorporates text from this source, which is in the public domain.

• 1839 births
• 1910 deaths
• American stage actresses
• 19th-century American novelists
• 19th-century American actresses
• American children's writers
• American women children's writers
• American women novelists
• English emigrants to the United States
• People from Bristol
• Soubrettes