§7. The Search for Foreign Plays. XVIII. The Drama, 1860–1918. Vol. 17. Later National Literature, Part II. The Cambridge History of English and American Literature: An Encyclopedia in Eighteen Volumes. 1907

The Cambridge History of English and American Literature in 18 Volumes (1907–21).
VOLUME XVII. Later National Literature, Part II.

XVIII. The Drama, 1860–1918.

§ 7. The Search for Foreign Plays.

The reasons for the poverty of American plays in the decade 1860–1870 are thus readily suggested. Our modern native drama did not grow out of literature, as it did in England and in France; it grew out of the theatre, and so it had to bide its time until the theatre found a need for it.