{"id":7772,"date":"2014-10-25T23:10:34","date_gmt":"2014-10-26T03:10:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/getitright.pmss.net\/?page_id=7772"},"modified":"2019-08-10T23:17:57","modified_gmt":"2019-08-11T03:17:57","slug":"percy-mackaye","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"http:\/\/staging.pinemountainsettlement.net\/?page_id=7772","title":{"rendered":"PERCY MACKAYE"},"content":{"rendered":"
Pine Mountain Settlement School
\nSeries 09 – Biography – Visitors in Residence<\/h5>\n

PERCY MACKAYE<\/strong>
\nVisiting Poet and Dramatist, Summer 1921<\/strong><\/h2>\n
\n

TAGS:<\/strong>\u00a0Percy MacKaye, Percy Wallace MacKaye, playwrights, poets, Appalachia language and culture,\u00a0Marion Homer (Morse) MacKaye, James Morrison MacKaye, Mary Keith Medbery MacKaye, James Medbery MacKaye, Emile Benton MacKaye, Hazel MacKaye, Arthur Loring MacKaye, James Steele MacKaye, symbolism, realism, Harvard College, Edward MacDowell, University of Leipzig, Craigie School, Cornish, NH, civic theaters, masques, pageants , artists-in-residence, Miami University, Anglo-Saxon heritage, Celtic heritage, Scottish heritage, Robert Keith (Robin) MacKaye, Arvia MacKaye Ege, Christy MacKaye Barnes<\/span><\/p>\n

\n
\"Percy<\/a>

Percy MacKaye, 1907. Anonymous. (Source: The Independent Vol.63 (Jul\u2013Dec 1907), New York, via Wikimedia Commons – public domain image). [Percy_MacKaye_001.jpg]<\/p><\/div>\n

In 1921, Percy Wallace MacKaye, a playwright and poet, and his wife, Marion<\/strong>, stayed at Pine Mountain Settlement School while the two of them traveled about the surrounding Appalachian region to study and record the traditional tales and songs of the mountain people. By the time the MacKayes returned home, Percy had written plays, narrative poems, and short stories that he hoped would preserve the language and culture of Appalachia before all was gone forever in the face of increasing mechanization and standardization. This was a mantra shared by the founders of Pine Mountain Settlement and many of those who passed through the School and valley.<\/p>\n

Percy MacKaye: HIS FAMILY<\/h3>\n

MacKaye\u00a0was born into a family of talented and intellectual women and men\u00a0on March 16, 1875, in New York City. He died on August 31, 1956, in Cornish, New Hampshire. According to Willard Cook\u2019s 1913 book, Our Poets of Today<\/em>,<\/p>\n

[His] paternal grandfather came to United States from Scotland about 1800 and his grandfather, Colonel James Morrison MacKaye<\/strong>, a staunch adherent of anti-slavery doctrines, was an intimate friend of Clay, Webster, Garrison, and Lincoln. On his mother\u2019s side, Percy MacKaye [was] of New England Puritan descent. His maternal grandmother was president of one of the earliest women\u2019s colleges, and his mother [Mary Keith Medbery<\/strong>] was the author of a published dramatization of Jane Austen\u2019s <\/em>Pride and Prejudice.<\/p>\n

He had five siblings, including\u00a0Arthur Loring MacKaye<\/strong> (1863\u20131939), an author and journalist and sibling from James Steele MacKaye’s first marriage; Harold (Hal) Steele MacKaye<\/strong> (1866\u20131928); William Payson MacKaye<\/strong> (1868\u20131889);\u00a0James Medbery MacKaye<\/a><\/strong>\u00a0(1872\u20131935)\u00a0a\u00a0philosopher and engineer; Hazel MacKaye<\/strong> (1880\u20131944), designer, director and writer of many pageants; and\u00a0Emile Benton MacKaye<\/strong>, a conservationist, planner, and founder of The Wilderness Society and the Appalachian Trail.<\/p>\n

Percy MacKaye: HIS TRAINING & EMPLOYMENT<\/h3>\n

Percy first learned about the theater while growing up in New York City and\u00a0working alongside his father, James Steele MacKaye<\/strong>, a prominent dramatist, actor, theater director, and inventor. After Steele MacKaye died, Percy was intent on continuing his father\u2019s lifetime goal of providing \u201ca fine art for the people.\u201d He also began a biography of his father.<\/p>\n

MacKaye\u00a0engaged formal training in playwriting at Harvard University, but, as biographer David Glassberg observed, the younger MacKaye was more interested in “abstract symbolism” and not the “thrilling realism” preferred by his father.<\/p>\n

Following graduation from Harvard College in 1897, he married Marion Homer Morse<\/strong> of Cambridge, Massachusetts. Marion was a first cousin of artist Winslow Homer and a piano student of Edward MacDowell, the composer and pianist. During the early years of 1898 to 1900, the MacKayes traveled abroad and lived in Rome, Italy, and Germany, where he studied at the University of Leipzig.<\/p>\n

Upon their return to the States in late 1900, the MacKayes took up residence in New York where Percy taught for three years at the Craigie School, a private boys\u2019 school in New York City. Following his tenure at the Craigie School, he\u00a0remained in New York City where he continued to teach and lecture at a variety of colleges and universities, including Columbia. In the first decade of the century he also made contact with the artist and writer’s colony in Cornish, New Hampshire, and eventually\u00a0moved near to the colony with his wife.\u00a0New Hampshire became the main residence of the couple.<\/p>\n

Percy MacKaye: CIVIC THEATER<\/h3>\n

The philosophical base of MacKaye’s work was in \u201ccivic theater.\u201d This particular form of theater outlined in his 1912 book, The Civic Theatre in Relation to the Redemption of Leisure: A Book of Suggestions<\/em>, advocates a theater in which the audience is not just spectator, but is actively engaged in their leisure activities, whether theater, art, poetry or other creative activity. He particularly emphasized the need for people and their arts programs to rely on endowments and private donations rather than on commercial entities for support of leisure\u00a0activities.<\/p>\n

During 1912, he wrote many masques, pageants, and outdoor performances for\u00a0civic celebrations to promote and demonstrate his central ideas and\u00a0concepts surrounding the “Civic Theatre.” It was at Miami University that he put his ideas to work and from 1920 to 1924, he worked off and on as an artist-in-residence at Miami University in southern Ohio. His position was the first such “civic” position in writing at an American university. He was at Miami University at the same time as August Angel<\/a> was a student at the college in the 1930s and later a teacher at Pine Mountain School.<\/p>\n

Percy MacKaye: INTEREST IN APPALACHIA<\/h3>\n

While\u00a0at Miami University and most likely through visits to nearby Oberlin, he became\u00a0increasingly interested in \u201cAppalachia as an example of the nation\u2019s folk culture. \u201d According to David Glassberg, one of his biographers, there may have been legacy influences, as well: “MacKaye\u2019s interest in the Anglo-Saxon and Celtic heritage of the [Appalachian] region over that of other ethnic groups might have been stimulated by his exploration of his own Scottish background.” During the\u00a01920s he continued to prepare the biography of his father and to research his European legacy.<\/p>\n

Glassberg’s, American Historical Pageantry:\u00a0The Uses of Tradition in the Early Twentieth Century, 1990,<\/em> provides a well-thought-through analysis of MacKaye’s motivations for work in Appalachia. Glassberg reveals that following a trip\u00a0to Europe in 1869, Steele MacKaye had changed the spelling of the family name from McKay to MacKaye to remind acquaintances that he pronounced his name in the Scottish manner to rhyme with sky, not hay. Apparently, the family had a special affection for the Celtic and Scottish roots of the Appalachian people.<\/p>\n

Percy MacKaye: PINE MOUNTAIN SETTLEMENT SCHOOL<\/h3>\n

While the direct influence that brought MacKaye to Pine Mountain in the summer of 1921, may not be fully known, Percy and Marion, his wife, were at Pine Mountain Settlement School using it as\u00a0 a base for their exploration of the region. While there they immersed themselves in the community studying the traditional music and stories of the surrounding area and soaking up the dialect.<\/p>\n

Using his research in the Pine Mountain valley, MacKaye produced a variety of literary writings that reflected his beliefs. Kevin Dann in his book Across the Great Border Fault: The Naturalist Myth in America (2000) <\/em>suggests that MacKaye felt that modern technology \u201ctruly threatened to destroy the indigenous culture, the virile, archaic dialect and the homespun genius of southern Appalachia.\u201d It was a sentiment shared by Pine Mountains founders, Katherine Pettit and Ethel de Long Zande, and echoed in the environmentalism of Percy’s brother, Benton MacKaye.<\/p>\n

Among Percy MacKaye’s\u00a0creative works influenced by Appalachia was a cycle of five plays about Kentucky mountain life, beginning with \u201cThis Fine, Pretty World<\/em>.\u201d The May 1924 issue of Notes from the Pine Mountain Settlement School<\/a> reported that four mountain plays of MacKaye\u00a0\u201cwho spent a summer in our own valley,\u201d were currently popular in New York City, including\u00a0the popular\u00a0\u201cThis Fine Pretty World.<\/em>\u201d The article in Notes<\/a>\u00a0responded to readers who questioned the accuracy of MacKaye\u2019s image of Kentucky and who feared a possible negative impact on the School:<\/p>\n

“SO much has been written about the mountains\u00a0this winter, in verse and fiction and <\/em>drama and short articles, that we have wondered if people are not beginning to tire of <\/em>us a bit. An echo of this is heard in the remark of a New York dramatic critic, who <\/em>wrote for his paper this past season, “At last a play about Kentucky has been pro<\/em>duced which is not laid in the Cumberlands and does not have for its plot moonshine <\/em>and shootings.” This winter there have been four mountain plays all drawing full <\/em>houses in New York. Sun Up<\/span> has run since August, and is chiefly distinguished by the\u00a0<\/em>splendid interpretation of an old mountain\u00a0<\/em>woman given by Lucile LaVerne; The Shame\u00a0Woman<\/span> is by the same author. Of Hell-<\/span><\/em>Bent Fer Heaven<\/span>, one friend writes us that\u00a0<\/em>it is a splendid mountain play, while ano<\/em>ther, equally discriminating and well-in<\/em>formed, says it is “pure New York melo<\/em>drama.” This Fine Pretty World<\/span> was writ<\/em>ten by Percy MacKaye, who spent a sum<\/em>mer in our own valley.\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

We cannot defend Mr. MacKaye’s over<\/em>loading of the dialect with idiom, nor the\u00a0<\/em>Irish cast he has given to both plot and char<\/em>acters. Nevertheless, there is inherent truth\u00a0<\/em>to mountain characteristics in his develop<\/em>ment of one episode in one little valley in\u00a0<\/em>the mountains. To quote a critic, “It has\u00a0<\/em>the feel of authenticity and the smell of the\u00a0<\/em>soil.” On the other hand, it has aroused regret and even indignation<\/em> among some of<\/em> our friends, and one letter written to us\u00a0<\/em>said that it was “a disgrace to the moun<\/em>tain people and ought never to have been\u00a0<\/em>produced. Nobody will ever give to a\u00a0<\/em>mountain school again who has seen it.”\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

The literary man does not try to give a complete picture in a story or a play, any more than a painter tries to tell you all about the valley he paints from this or that hillside, seeing it differently in every light and from every angle. Truth wears many guises; there are as many different types in the mountains as there are anywhere else. We should like to commend to those friends of the mountains who feel that pictures of an Elizabethan society like This Fine Pretty World<\/span> treated with Elizabethan freedom, may hurt the mountain cause, the remark of
\nOld Mrs. Kagel in Sun Up<\/span>; “Whar you haint afeard, thar haint no danger.” No one of these plays and no one of the stories or articles you read will give you the mountains complete, though they will all add to your knowledge of our country.\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

Percy MacKaye: AFTER PINE MOUNTAIN<\/h3>\n

Many of MacKaye’s creations were patriotic and optimistic, sentiments not unusual following the difficult years of WWI, just ended. The plays often celebrated notable events in history, historical celebration and well-known American leaders and civic champions. These often found a favorable audience, but some of his work raised questions and sometimes harsh criticism from the thespian circle.<\/p>\n

In the Warner Library: The World’s Best Literature<\/em> (1917), vol. 16, MacKaye is described in the following manner:<\/p>\n

It would be easy to criticize any of Mr. MacKay\u2019s productions from the point of view of dramaturgy; but the remarkable fact is that in so many ways he has succeeded in bringing so varied and so fresh an invention to the service of the state. Within the same period, other men have written more successful plays, and other men have sustained their fancy in more certain flights. No other man, however, has so persistently and ingeniously wooed the stage with poetry and fantasy.<\/em><\/p>\n

MacKaye continued to follow his own muse but found his values challenged\u00a0when his wife Marion died while she was visiting friends in France in June of 1939. Following the death of his wife, MacKaye’s production slowed and he spent more time with his children, Robert Keith, Arvia, <\/strong>and Christy<\/strong>, all of whom had careers in the arts.<\/p>\n

His daughter,\u00a0Arvia MacKaye Ege<\/strong>, who died in 1989, is particularly interesting in relation to Pine Mountain Settlement. A poet, she was also the founder of the Rudolph Steiner Educational and Farming Association, which was both an umbrella organization and a community that supported a farm school, an environmental center, an artist colony and a student education program. Born in 1903, Arvia would have been eighteen when her parents were at Pine Mountain Settlement School in the summer of 1921.\u00a0The Power of the Impossible: A Life Story of Percy and Marion MacKaye<\/i> (Ghent, NY: Adonis Press, 1992. 750 pp. Book is very rare.) is Arvia’s tribute to her parents. Published after her mother’s death and after her own death, it is testimony to the journey the family all took together. The Pine Mountain valley clearly played a significant role in the family journeys.<\/p>\n

Percy MacKaye: MACKAYE AS ALWIN THE POET IN “SANCTUARY”<\/h3>\n
\"334px-Percy-MacKaye-Alwyn-Genthe\"<\/a>

Percy MacKaye as Alwyn the poet in MacKaye’s play “Sanctuary: A Bird Masque.” Photographed in 1913 by Arnold Genthe. [en.wikipedia.org]<\/p><\/div>\n

(Left) Percy MacKaye (1875\u20131956) as Alwyn, the poet, a character in Percy MacKaye’s play\u00a0“Sanctuary: A Bird Masque,” in rehearsal for the first performance at the Meriden Bird Club sanctuary dedication in New Hampshire. The original is a photograph: autochrome, color; 5\u00d77 i<\/p>\n

The play, written in verse, told of a hunter\u2019s redemption by his prey, the Bird Spirit. At a time when demand for feathers in hats and other products was harming entire species, the play helped promote the wild bird conservation movement.<\/p>\n

Library of Congress, Prints & Photographs Division, LC-DIG-ppmsca-17569 (digital file from original),\u00a0archival TIFF version (72 MB)<\/a>, cropped, with color balance, brightness, and contrast adjusted, and converted to JPEG, all with the GIMP 2.4.5, image quality 88.\u00a0Photographed in 1913 by\u00a0Arnold Genthe<\/strong> (1869\u20131942). No known restriction on publication. [Wikimedia Commons].<\/p>\n

SEE ALSO: <\/strong><\/p>\n

PERCY MACKAYE Creative Work<\/strong><\/p>\n

PERCY MACKAYE Napoleon Crossing the Rockies<\/strong><\/p>\n

MARION MACKAYE\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

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PERCY MACKAYE<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n