author
John Brougham
1810–1880
An Irish-born actor, playwright, and theatre manager, he became a celebrated figure of the nineteenth-century stage on both sides of the Atlantic. Known for comic Irish characters and sharp burlesques, he wrote more than 100 plays and helped shape Irish-American theatre.
2 Audiobooks
The Bunsby Papers (second series): Irish Echoes
by John Brougham
Jane Eyre : a drama in five acts
by John Brougham, Charlotte Brontë
About the author
Born in Dublin on May 9, 1810, John Brougham first studied surgery before turning to the stage. He made his London debut in 1830, joined Madame Vestris’s company, managed the Lyceum Theatre, and wrote his first burlesque in 1834. He was also associated with Dion Boucicault and claimed a role in the creation of London Assurance.
Brougham moved to New York in 1842, where he built a long career as an actor, playwright, theatre manager, and writer. His popular works often focused on Irish immigrants and Irish-American life, combining lively comedy with more sympathetic character portrayals. He also published A Basket of Chips and The Bunsby Papers, and founded the literary Lotos Club with fellow New York writers and artists.
He spent much of his later life performing in New York, with a period in England and Ireland during the American Civil War. Brougham died in New York on June 7, 1880; his posthumous Life, Stories and Poems of John Brougham appeared in 1881.