Individuals >> Fox, Mary Hewins ( Mary Hewins Burnham )

Actor, Journalist.

Little is known about Mary Fox beyond the fact that she was one of several actresses who accompanied Ada Clare to Pfaff’s (J. Browne 157). The New York Times obituary of Henry Clapp identifies Fox as both a Pfaffian and as a correspondent for the St. Louis Republican who wrote under the name "M. H. B.” (7). She also wrote as Giddy Gusher for the New York Dramatic Mirror.

Fox came to be known as Mary Fiske after her marriage to dramatic critic Stephen Ryder Fiske. The marriage was preceded by an affair that prompted Fox’s husband at the time, Mr. Burnham, to attempt to shoot and stab Fiske (T. Miller 110). In 1877 she gave birth to a son, but no information about him is known.

References & Biographical Resources

Browne, Junius Henri. The Great Metropolis; A Mirror of New York. Hartford: American Publishing, 1869. 700 p. [more about this work]

She is mentioned as one of the Bohemians' "female companions" at Pfaff's. She was an actress (157). [pages: 157]

Miller, Tice L. Bohemians and Critics: American Theatre Criticism in the Nineteenth Century. Metuchen, NJ: The Scarecrow Press, 1981. [more about this work]

One of several women who frequented Pfaff's. She was a "feminist who fought actively to improve the role of women" (110).

Fox eventually married Stephen Ryder Fiske, but the couple first engaged in a scandalous affair. The affair prompted Mary's husband of the time, Mr. Burnham, to attempt to shoot and stab Fiske (110). [pages: 16, 110]

"Obituary: Henry Clapp." The New-York Times. 11 Apr. 1875: 7. [more about this work]

She was a regular at Pfaff's. The "Obituary" states that she is "not at all dead" and "is frequently heard of as 'M. H. B.' the correspondent of the St. Louis Republican." [pages: 7]

Odell, George C.D. Annals of the New York Stage: Volume VIII (1865-1870). New York:Columbia University Press, 1936. [more about this work]

M.W. Fiske is mentioned as an old favorite on the stage in the 1867-68 season (404). She took part in The Glorious Seven, a burlesque that boasted several actresses of the time and "forty graceful beauties" and Odell says that this show is the predecessor of future similar revues (647). Fox might also be known as Minnie Maddern -mentioned as "the afterwars famous Mrs. Fiske" (564). (unconfirmed if this is the right Mary Fox/Fiske) [pages: 404,585,588, 646-7,564]

Sentilles, Renee M. Performing Menken: Adah Isaacs Menken and the Birth of American Celebrity. Cambridge, United Kingdom: Cambridge University Press, 2003. [more about this work]

A regular at Pfaff's. [pages: 142]

"Untitled." Dramatic Mirror. 9 Feb. 1889. [more about this work]

"Untitled." Spirit of the Times. 1889. [more about this work]

Wilson, James Grant and John Fiske, eds. Appletons' Cyclopaedia of American Biography, Volume II, Crane-Grimshaw. New York: D. Appleton & Co., 1888. [more about this work]

Appleton claims Fox's career on the stage began in Troy, NY. [pages: 521]