Excerpt from Plays, Vol. 1

To the first volume of his remarkable series of autobiograph ical novels, August Strindberg gave the name of The Bond woman's Son. The allusion was twofold - to his birth and to the position which fate, in his own eyes, seemed to have assigned him both as man and artist.

If we pass on to the third part of his big trilogy, To Damas cus, also an autobiographical work, but written nearly twenty years later, we find The Stranger, who is none but the author, saying: I was the Bondwoman's Son, concerning whom it was writ Cast out this bondwoman and her son; for the son of the bondwoman shall not be heir with the free woman's son.' And The Lady, back of whom we glimpse Strindberg's sec ond wife, replies: Do you know why Ishmael was cast out? It is to be read a little further back - because he was a scot fer! And then it is also said: 'he will be a wild man; his hand will be against every man, and every man's hand against him; and he shall dwell in opposition to all his breth ren.' These quotations should be read in conjunction with still another, taken from Strindberg's latest play, The Great Highway, which, while being a sort of symbolical summary of his life experience, yet pierces the magic circle of self concern within which too often he has remained a captive. There The Hermit asks: You do not love your fellow men P And Strindberg, masquerading as The Hunter, cries in answer: Yes, far too much, and fear them for that reason, too.

August Strindberg was born at Stockholm, Sweden, on January 22, 1849. His father was a small tradesman, who had lost his business just before August was born, but who had the energy and ability to start all over again as a steam ship agent, making a decided success of his second venture. The success, however, was slow in coming, and the boy's earliest years were spent in the worst kind of poverty - that poverty which has to keep up outward appearances.

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