Although he is little studied today and is perhaps best remembered as a poet, Ridgely Torrence was among the first white American dramatists to write serious roles for black actors. As an admirer of the Irish Abbey Theatre, which helped revitalize the Irish dramatic tradition, Torrence hoped that his Granny Maumee, The Rider of Dreams, Simon the Cyrenian: Plays for a Negro Theater (1917) would be similarly successful in establishing an African American theater. In addition to writing other prose and verse drama and poetry, Torrence worked as an editor and critic.

Frederick Ridgely Torrence was born 27 November 1874 in Xenia, Ohio, the eldest child of Findley David Torrence, a lumber dealer, and Mary Ridgely Torrence, both devout Presbyterians. The family lived in Xenia for all but two of Torrence's childhood years, when they moved to Santa Ana, California. His memories of California provided the playwright with a Western landscape...