Biography
British dramatist, composer and pageant master Louis Napoleon Parker was born in Calvados, France, in 1852. His father, Charles Albert Parker, was a well-to-do American lawyer, a son of Isaac Parker, chief justice of Massachusetts. At the age of 39, in 1840, Charles left America with his much younger English wife, Elizabeth Moray, and started touring Europe. When Louis was born his father was, typically, absent from the home. His exhausted mother spoke no French and the birth of Louis the father was typically absent, while exhausted mother could not speak French. The infant seemed to be dying, so his parents' French neighbors named him.
Throughout Louis' childhood the family lived in various parts of Europe, and he became fluent in French, German and Italian. At the age of 17 he was sent to the Royal Academy of Music in London, where he made rapid progress as a musician. After the Academy, he worked for Sherborne School as music master and stayed there for 19 years. In 1886 he privately published his first play to be professionally performed, "A Buried Talent". From that point on he actively wrote plays, adapted them, and many of them were successful, among them "Joseph and His Brethren", "Drake", "Disraeli" and "Rosemary". Because of his strong pro-English feelings many came to believe that he was a European himself, and he grew to loathe the name. Louis Napoleon Parker was naturalized to England on June 17, 1914. Of his two daughters, the younger, Dorothy Parker, became an actress of some distinction.
