put Fitch's "Captain Jinks of the
Horse Marines" above Edward Sheldon's "Romance" for the faithful
reproduction of early New York atmosphere. I would put it by the side
of Pinero's "Trelawney of the 'Wells'." But there is no play of
Fitch's which, for strength, I would hold beside "The Thunderbolt." In
his feminine analyses, too, he did not probe as deep as Pinero.

Within a few months of his death, Fitch was asked to deliver an
address on the theatre at Harvard and at Yale. He enlarged his
magazine article on "The Play and the Public" for that purpose. It is
now easily accessible, included in the fourth volume of the Memorial
Edition of his plays. It was found among his many papers and
unfinished manuscripts. There is no recent playwright whose "Life and
Letters" are more worthy of preservation. I have looked through most
of the materials; have seen letters descriptive of his childhood in
Schenectady, New York, (he was born, May 2, 1865 in Elmira); have read
accounts of his student days at Amherst, where vagaries of dress used
to stir his associates to student pranks; have relished an illustrated
diary he kept while tutoring in his early years of struggle, his
father refusing to countenance playwriting instead of architecture.
These early years were filled with the same vivacity, affection and
sympathy which later made him such a rare friend. It bears repeating
what has been often said before--he had a genius for friendship, and
an equal genius for losing those he did not want.

Such a biography as should be written of his picturesque popularity as
a playwright would mostly be autobiographic. For a letter from Fitch
had rare flavour, more personal than his plays but of the same
Fitchean quality. It would, as well, be a personal record of the
stage, and would set at rest many myths that have floated around his
name--such as William Winter wilfully circulated about "Beau
Brummell."[A]

"The Moth and the Flame" is here reproduced because it has never
before been issued, and should be made available to the student of
American Drama. To say that it is typically Fitchean does not mean
that, in technique or in characterization, it is his best. But it is
confession that whatever he wrote bore that incommunicable touch which
gives him a unique position--a position no American playwright thus
far has been able to usurp.

FOOTNOTES:

[Footnote A: Since this was written, it has been announced that a
volume, "Clyde Fitch an