'A Romance of New England Life'. Joseph Rhode Grismer (1849 – 1922) was an American stage actor, playwright, and theatrical director and producer. He was probably best remembered for his play The New South and for his revision of the Charlotte Blair Parker play Way Down East. Grismer, with actor turned producer William A. Brady, a former member of his company in California, purchased the rights to Lottie Blair Parker’s Way Down East, a pastoral play about country life in New England. With Grismer’s elaborations and with Davies playing the lead role Anna Moore opposite Howard Kyle as David Bartlett, Way Down East debuted on September 3, 1897, at Providence Rhode Island and the following month made its New York premier at the Manhattan Theatre. Over a run that lasted nearly ten seasons, it was estimated that the play had earned the two around a million dollars, with Grismer’s share placed in the neighborhood of three hundred and fifty thousand dollars. Way Down East, which remained popular with the public for many years, was later novelized by Grismer and, on four occasions between 1908 and 1935, produced as a motion picture. This volume, a 1st edition, published by J.S.Ogilvie in 1900, is unmarked, 4.75" X 7.5", 190 pp., illustrated with pictures from the play, in good+ condition. No DJ, somewhat cocked. Bright and Clean!!