The Notorious Mrs. Ebbsmith (Dodo Press)

Sir Arthur Wing Pinero (1855-1934) was an English actor and later an important dramatist and stage director. In 1874 he joined R. H. Wyndham's company at the Theatre Royal in Edinburgh. After also acting in Liverpool, he joined Henry Irving's Lyceum Theatre company in London in 1876, where he acted in supporting roles for five years, and later played under the Bancrofts' management at the Haymarket Theatre. He received good notice in Sheridan's The Rivals, in 1884, which he had revised himself. He began writing plays in the late 1870s while at the Lyceum, including Daisy's Escape in 1879 and Bygones in 1880. He became a prolific and successful playwright, authoring fifty-nine plays. His 1923 romance The Enchanted Cottage was successfully filmed in 1924 and 1945. He was knighted in 1909. His works include: Two Hundred a Year (1877), The Squire (1881), The Money Spinner (1881), The Magistrate (1885), The Schoolmistress (1886), Dandy Dick (1887), Sweet Lavender (1888), The Profligate (1889), Lady Bountiful (1891), The Cabinet Minister (1892), The Second Mrs. Tanqueray (1893) and The Weaker Sex (1894).