Giacomo Puccini 484 Geraldine Farrar as _Madama Butterfly_ 490 PREFACE _My father’s plan of_ THE LIFE OF DAVID BELASCO _was communicated, in detail, by him to me. He realized that whenever he might die he was certain to leave much work undone. He hoped and expected, however, to live long enough to complete this book. It was in his mind to the very end. The last entry in his “Journal” refers to it: “June. Saturday, 2. Cloudy and gloomy. Worked all day on the Memoir.” He spoke of it often during his agonized final illness. The last words he ever wrote are a part of it. I have, as well as I could, finished it for him, according to his plan, because I know that he wished me to do so._ _This book was planned by Mr. Winter in 1913, as part of a comprehensive record of the American Stage which he purposed to write. Other kindred projects which he then had in view and on which he labored much include revised and augmented editions of his_ LIFE AND ART OF EDWIN BOOTH _and_ LIFE AND ART OF JOSEPH JEFFERSON; _joint biographies of_ HENRY IRVING _and_ ELLEN TERRY, _and an encyclopedical work to be called_ ALMS FOR OBLIVION, _in which he intended to gather a vast mass of miscellaneous material relative to the Theatre. He also had in contemplation a_ LIFE OF AUGUSTIN DALY, _but he abandoned it because his friend the late Joseph Francis Daly (Augustin’s brother) had undertaken and in large part written a biography of that great theatrical manager and extraordinary man. All those projects languished because of lack of money: such books as those by William Winter issued since 1908 are, in every way, so costly to make that little commercial profit can be derived from them._