Born in Philadelphia in 1862, Langdon Mitchell was educated in Dresden and Paris and studied law at Columbia and Harvard. In 1892 he made his professional debut as a playwright and married Marion Lea, the actress who originated the role of Vida in The New York Idea. Mitchell found success with Becky Sharp, his 1899 adaptation of Thackeray’s Vanity Fair, which ran for nearly two seasons. The New York Idea opened at the Lyric Theatre in 1906 and was a critical and commercial triumph. Following his playwriting career, he lectured in universities on poetry and playwriting. Mitchell died in 1935.
