Beginning with his autobiographical sketch, “Memoir and Theatrical Career of Ira Aldridge, The African Roscius” follows Aldridge's journey as a Black man who, "obtained and maintains among Europeans, a reputation whose acquisition demands the highest qualities of the mind and the noblest endowments of the person." Making it a lifetime goal to use his success and influence to speak on the horrors of slavery in America and abroad, this memoir is addressed to what he hopes to be an enlighted reader, and details how he rose to fame as a Shakespearian actor in spite of the racism and prejudice he faced as a Black man in theater. This edition also includes Aldridge's 1847 translation of Auguste Anicet-Bourgeois's “Le Docteur Noir” (The Black Doctor). At the age of forty, Aldridge adapted the play about a hidden romance between a formerly enslaved doctor and the daughter of a French aristocrat and was said to have brought dignity to a role that traditionally ended in tragedy for its bi-racial lead. Together, these two pieces paint a stunning portrait of one of the first great Black actors. One part memoir and one part translation, “The African Roscius” is an exceptional piece of Black history professionally typeset and reimagined for modern readers.
