[Richard Mansfield, one of the great actors of his time, was born in
Heligoland, then a British Possession, in 1857. He prepared himself
for the East Indian civil service, then studied art, and opened a
studio in Boston. He was soon attracted to the stage, and began
playing minor parts in comic opera, displaying marked ability from the
first. His versatility took him all the way from the role of Koko in
the "Mikado," to Beau Brummel and Richard III. His success soon
enabled him to assemble a company of his own; as its manager he
produced with memorable effect "Cyrano de Bergerac," "Henry V.," and
"Julius Caesar." He died in 1907, a few weeks after a striking
creation of "Peer Gynt." A biography of Mr. Mansfield by Mr. Paul
Wilstach is published by C. Scribner's Sons, New York.
Mr. Mansfield's article on "Man and the Actor," which appeared in the
_Atlantic Monthly_, May, 1906, copyright by Houghton, Mifflin & Co.,
Boston, is here given almost in full by the kind permission of the
publishers and of Mrs. Richard Mansfield. It is in effect an
autobiographical revelation of the artist and the man.--ED.]