Contains dramatic works from the early eighteenth century up to the beginning of the twentieth. Includes: plays in verse, farces, melodramas, minstrel shows, realist plays, frontier plays, temperance dialogues and a range of other genres. Major dramatists include Clyde Fitch, Augustin Daly, David Belasco, James Herne and Joaquin Miller. Includes overviews of the lives and works of featured authors.