MACREADY, WILLIAM

MACREADY, WILLIAM. [1848–1849] British actor whose performance at the Astor Place Opera House in 1849 provoked a partisan riot that became symbolic of the class struggle between the city’s privileged anglophiles and the poor—chiefly Irish—immigrants. Published as Macready’s Reminiscences and Selections from His Diaries and Letters, edited by Sir Frederick Pollock. New York, Macmillan and Co., 1875.