Herne, James A.

Herne, James A.

 orig. James Ahearn

(born Feb. 1, 1839, Troy, N.Y., U.S.—died June 2, 1901, New York, N.Y.) U.S. playwright. He worked as a traveling actor before achieving success with his first play, Hearts of Oak (1879; written with David Belasco). Margaret Fleming (1890) is considered his major achievement, though Shore Acres (1892) was his most popular play. He helped bridge the gap between 19th-century melodrama and the 20th-century drama of ideas.

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Herne, James A. (b. Ahearn) (1839–1901) actor, playwright; born in Cohoes, N.Y. He began as an actor, then turned to writing melodrama in collaboration with David Belasco. His later, more serious plays were strongly influenced by Ibsen, and were often better esteemed by literary critics than by audiences. Among his most important failures was Margaret Fleming (1891), a play that deals with the consequences of a husband's infidelity.