Adolphe Appia and G. Craig by Carl Van Vechten

In the first edition of "On the Art of the Theatre" (1911), Gordon Craig distinguishes himself by killing off Adolphe Appia. In the 1912 edition of the book (and the subsequent editions) he apologizes for his carelessness in a footnote in which he refers to Appia as "the foremost stage-decorator of Europe. " "I was told that he was no more with us, so, in the first edition of this book, I included him among the shades. I first saw three examples of his work in 1908, and I wrote to a friend asking, ‘Where is Appia, and how can we meet? ' My friend replied, ‘Poor Appia died some years ago. ' This winter (1912) I saw some of Appia's designs in a portfolio belonging to Prince Wolkonsky. They were divine, and I was told that the designer was still living. " There is no other reference to "the foremost stage-decorator of Europe" in this book. Now, Appia's book, "Die Musik und die Inscenierung," translated from his original French text by Princess Elsa Cantacuzène, with eighteen plates from drawings by the author for the settings for the Wagner music-dramas, was issued by F. Bruckmann in Munich in 1899. This is the book which Hiram Kelly Moderwell refers to in "The Theatre of To-day. " Loomis Taylor, last season director of the German works at the Metropolitan Opera House, is also perfectly familiar with it, and he related to me recently how an attempt of his to bring Appia to Germany several years ago failed. There is no mention made by Gordon Craig of _any_ book by Appia; Mr. Taylor has read only the German text; and even Mr. Moderwell seems to have been ignorant of the fact that a previous work in French had been issued by Appia.

I have in my possession a small volume (51 pages) entitled "La Mise-en-scène du Drame Wagnérien," by Adolphe Appia, published by Léon Chailley in Paris in 1893. The sale was afterwards (1895) continued under the imprint of the well-known publisher, Fischbacher, 33 Rue de Seine. There is no copy of this work in the New York Public Library, nor in any other library that I have yet consulted. (The later German work is comparatively well known among artists of the theatre.) The only reference to it that I have discovered is in a footnote (Appia seems destined to be exiled to footnotes) in a now little read work by Houston Stewart Chamberlain, "Richard Wagner," issued in 1897, four years after Appia's pamphlet had first appeared. Appia dedicated "Die Musik und die Inscenierung" to Mr. Chamberlain in this fashion: "_à Houston Stewart Chamberlain qui seul connaît la vie que j'enferme en ces pages_."