BERNHARDT, SARAH

born Oct. 22/23, 1844, Paris, France died March 26, 1923, Paris original name Henriette-Rosine Bernard, byname The Divine Sarah, French La Divine Sarah the greatest French actress of the 19th century, and one of the best-known figures in the history of the stage. Alois M. Nagler The Editors of the Encyclopdia Britannica Additional reading Louis Verneuil, The Fabulous Life of Sarah Bernhardt (1942, reissued 1972), is an intimate biography by a dramatist who provided Bernhardt with two acting vehicles. Cornelia Otis Skinner, Madame Sarah (1966, reprinted 1988), is a successful, primarily biographical attempt at separating facts from fiction. William Emboden, Sarah Bernhardt (1976), is primarily a pictorial biography. Elaine Aston, Sarah Bernhardt: A French Actress on the English Stage (1989), analyzes her acting technique. Arthur Gold and Robert Fizdale, The Divine Sarah (1991), includes research based on previously unavailable materials.