I. “Uncle Vanya” II. “Helena” in New York III. “The Penalty of Greatness” IV. Working with Lillian V. “Uncle Vanya” Takes the Road VI. Reliving The Years VII. A Few Notes VIII. L’Envoi ------------------------------------------------------------------------ ILLUSTRATIONS “Helena” A Scene from “Her First False Step” Lillian and Dorothy Gish David Wark Griffith Lillian and Dorothy, During the Griffith Period Lillian as Elsie Stoneman, in “The Birth of a Nation” Mrs. Gish and “Her Girls,” Mary Pickford, Mildred Harris, Dorothy and Lillian Lillian Gish and Richard Barthelmess in “Broken Blossoms” “Anna Moore” The River Scene in “Way Down East” “The White Sister” “Romola” Mimi at the Pawnshop ... “La Bohême” Miss Gish as Hester Prynne, in “The Scarlet Letter” “Wind.” Letty, Burying the Man She Had Killed “The First Lady of the Screen” “Camille” ------------------------------------------------------------------------ _PROLOGUE_ (Scene: Chekhov’s “Uncle Vanya”—end of second act. Lillian Gish as Helena) _First Woman in Front of Me_: “They say she’s been playing over twenty-five years.” _Second Woman in Front of Me_: “Goodness! How old is she?” “The piece I read said about thirty or so....” “Oh, began as a child; is Gish her real name?” “I believe so; the piece said....” “Do you like these Russian plays?” “I like _her_, in anything. I _loved_ her in ‘Broken Blossoms,’ though it nearly killed me.” “I wonder why she left the movies.” “Oh, lots of ’em do; the piece said....” “Do you suppose that is all her own hair?” “Oh, I think so; the piece said....” ------------------------------------------------------------------------ LIFE AND LILLIAN GISH PART ONE I A GIRL CHILD, BORN WITH A CAUL When Lillian was six, she found herself with a company (one night stands, mostly), “trouping” through the Middle West— ... the golden-haired child actress who supplied the beauty and pathos in a melodrama variously known as “The Red Schoolhouse” and “In Convict Stripes.” All of which had come about reasonably enough—as reasonably as anything is likely to happen, in a world where nothing seems at all reasonable until we begin taking it to pieces. * * * * *