Fanny Kemble

Frances Anne Kemble (later Butler; 27 November 1809 – 15 January 1893) was an English actress from a theatre family in the early and mid-nineteenth century. She was a well-known and popular writer and abolitionist whose published works included plays, poetry, eleven volumes of memoirs, travel writing, and works about the theatre. She lived for many years in the United States, primarily in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania and Lenox, Massachusetts.

Kemble's "lasting historical importance...derives from the private journal she kept during her time in the Sea Islands" on her husband's plantations, where she wrote a journal documenting the conditions of the slaves on the plantation and her growing abolitionist feelings. She was also an early adopter of spoken word performances combined with music.

Early life and education

A member of the famous Kemble theatrical family, Fanny was the eldest daughter of the actor Charles Kemble and his Viennese-born wife, the former Marie Therese De Camp. She was a niece of the noted tragedienne Sarah Siddons and of the famous actor John Philip Kemble. Her younger sister was the opera singer Adelaide Kemble. Fanny was born in London and educated chiefly in France. In 1821, Fanny Kemble departed to boarding school in Paris to study art and music as befitted the child of the most celebrated artistic family in England at that time. In addition to literature and society, at Mrs. Lamb's Academy in the Rue d'Angoulême, Champs Elysées, Fanny received her first real personal exposure to the stage performing staged readings for students' parents during her time at school. As an adolescent, Kemble spent time studying literature and poetry, in particular the work of Lord Byron.