19 Facts About Francis Neilson

Francis Neilson was an accomplished British-born American actor, playwright and stage director.

Francis Neilson was a political figure and former member of the British House of Commons.

An avid lecturer, Neilson was an author of more than 60 books, plays and opera librettos and the most active leader in the Georgist movement.

Several accounts explain that because of his large family, Francis Neilson left school at the age of fourteen and moved to the United States at the age of eighteen.

Isabel Francis Neilson, an accomplished sculptor, married Prince Hermann of Saxe-Weimar-Eisenach, Count of Ostheim, in 1932 and became Countess of Ostheim, and Marion Francis Neilson married Captain Hugh Melville, Sam Browne's Cavalry.

Francis Neilson provided Victor Herbert with a libretto for Prince Ananias commissioned by the theater company The Bostonians which debuted in 1894.

Francis Neilson came back to London as a stage director for Charles Frohman at the Duke of York's Theatre.

Later Francis Neilson was invited to direct the national opera at Covent Garden, which he remodelled completely in 1900.

The encounter of the two men triggered an interest that took Francis Neilson to invite Puccini to see a private performance of the play Madame Butterfly, playing then at the Duke of York's Theatre.

Francis Neilson was elected as Member of Parliament for the constituency of Hyde in Cheshire in 1910.

Francis Neilson resigned from parliament in 1916 after his pacifist beliefs conflicted with the First World War.

Francis Neilson returned to the United States, where he became a citizen in 1921 and began pursuing his writing career.

Francis Neilson went on to write over sixty books, along with many other forms of writing such as articles, plays, and an opera.

Francis Neilson co-edited a journal of opinion and literary criticism, titled The Freeman between 1920 and 1924.

Francis Neilson was assisted in writing his last book, Ur to Nazareth, by his literary secretary, K Phyllis Evans.

Francis Neilson wrote a two-volume autobiography, My Life in Two Worlds.

Francis Neilson was a benefactor of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, to which he donated antiquities and several paintings, including A Winter Carnival in a Small Flemish Town, Portrait of a Man, Possibly George Frederick Handel, and The Pelkus Gate near Utrecht.

Francis Neilson died, aged 94, on 13 April 1961 in Port Washington, Long Island, New York.

Francis Neilson was cremated and his remains interred at Liverpool Cathedral.