Memoirs of his own life

the long version

Memoirs of His Own Life is the theatrical memoir of Tate Wilkinson, one of the foremost actors and managers of the late eighteenth century. In Memoirs, Wilkinson chronicles the personalities and rivalries of the players he knew, while tracing his own triumphs and disasters as he rose from being a star-struck child, watching rehearsals from behind the scenes at Covent Garden Theater, to becoming one of the most popular performers and most successful managers of his day. In addition to being one of the leading theatrical managers and performers in England during the last half of the eighteenth century, Tate Wilkinson was, perhaps, the greatest mimic who ever lived. He had the ability to precisely imitate a person's voice, even a woman's, and also to duplicate the individual's walk, gestures, and facial features. To be "taken off" in the eighteenth century, however, was considered a serious personal insult, and Wilkinson suffered ostracism and threats of violence for exhibiting the peculiarities of others before the public. Published in 1790, and not reprinted until now, Memoirs of His Own Life has long been a rich source for theatrical historians and biographers. But Wilkinson's Memoirs deserves to be better known, and Lyle Larsen has edited an abridgment with notes that should find many new readers.