Of the new pieces, Fitch’s “The Moth and the Flame” has remained unpublished until now.  It exemplifies many of his most sprightly observational qualities.  “The Truth” and “The Girl with the Green Eyes” are more mature, but are no less Fitchean than this.  Mr. David Belasco’s “The Return of Peter Grimm” is as effective in the reading as it was on the stage under his triumphant management.  Mr. Eugene Walter’s “The Easiest Way,” at the last moment, was released from publication in the Drama League Series of Plays; it still stands as America’s most cruelly realistic treatment of certain city conditions.  In the choice of Mr. Augustus Thomas’s “In Mizzoura”—­“The Witching Hour” having so often been used in dramatic collections—­the Editor believes he has represented this playwright at a time when his dramas were most racy and native.

This third volume, therefore, brings examples of the present American stagecraft to date.  Had his policy of selection not been exclusive, but rather inclusive of plays easily accessible to the student, the Editor might have reached out for Mr. George C. Hazelton’s and Mr. Benrimo’s “The Yellow Jacket,” Mr. Charles Kenyon’s “Kindling,” and Mr. A.E.  Thomas’s “Her Husband’s Wife.”  He might likewise have included William Vaughn Moody’s “The Great Divide.”  These are all representative plays by American dramatists for some future anthologist, when present editions become rare.

But here are offered plays that will enrich the American dramatic library because of their rarity, and for that reason others have been excluded, which are easily procurable in print.

Through the courteous co-operation of Dr. Fred W. Atkinson, Professor Brander Matthews, officials of the New York Public Library, The Library Society of Philadelphia, Mr. Robert Gould Shaw, Custodian of the Dramatic Collection of Harvard College Library, and through the generous response of the owners of copyrights and manuscripts, the present volume is made possible.  The Editor, through every phase of his work, has had the unswerving encouragement and assistance of his wife.

Montrose J. Moses.

New Hartford, Conn. 
August, 1920.

BIBLIOGRAPHY OF GENERAL WORKS

A large bibliography of standard works on the American Theatre was given in Volume I of the present collection.  A very few of the titles have been repeated here, with the additional inclusion of books which will present the essential spirit of modern American playwriting.  Some of these works mentioned contain further bibliographies, and these will enable the student to go as far in the field as desired.  There are still unblazed trails for the research worker, but these trails are becoming fewer and fewer, as interest in the study of American Drama as a social and artistic force progresses.

Atkinson, F.W.  American Plays.  Private Catalogue.  Brooklyn, N.Y.