LENOX, Mass. — Local History Librarian Amy Lafave will present "When I think, I must speak:" The World Stage of Fanny Kemble at the Lenox Library, 18 Main Street, at 5:30 p.m. on Thursday, June 16, 2022. 

 

This program will be held in person, as well as on Zoom, and is free and open to the public. Webinar details may be found on the Library's website at https://lenoxlib.org/events/ .

 

According to a press release, British actress turned Lenox resident Frances Anne "Fanny" Kemble gave a reading of "As You Like It" in 1868, to benefit the Lenox Library. The event was staged at what was then the Berkshire County Court House in Lenox; Judge Julius Rockwell lamented the inadequacy of the courtroom. Indeed, what is now the Library's Dome Room was a far cry from London's Covent Garden, where Kemble made her 1830 debut as Juliet. From theaters up and down the Atlantic Seaboard, to the drawing rooms of her Berkshire friends, Fanny's feet avoided one set of boards: the abolitionist's soapbox - until history gave her no choice.

 

In 1834, Kemble married Pierce Butler, owner of several hundred enslaved people. She described her face to face experience with those who lacked the "bare name of freemen" in her Journal of a Residence on a Georgian Plantation. For the first time in her life, Kemble was stripped of her voice, in her role as obedient wife and mother. Ultimately, she could not sway her husband from the institution of slavery; their tumultuous 1849 divorce was national news.

 

Using unique material from the Lenox Library's archival collections and other primary sources, Local History Librarian Amy Lafave will give a presentation on Kemble's experience on her husband's Georgia plantation, and her subsequent Lenox refuge.

 

This program is supported by federal funds provided by the Institute of Museum and Library Services and administered by the Massachusetts Board of Library Commissioners. 

 

For more information, please visit the Lenox Library's website at https://lenoxlib.org or call 413-637-0197.