Benjamin Edward Woolf

Woolf, Benjamin E[dward] (d. 1901), playwright and librettist. He was born in England and brought to America at an early age, apprenticed to an engraver in his teens, and later became a violinist in the orchestra his father conducted at Burton's Theatre. He later moved to Boston, where he conducted the orchestra at the Boston Museum. Woolf's poetry was published in book form, and his paintings were exhibited at important Boston galleries. Oddly, he seems never to have composed music for public performance. Instead, between 1860 and the mid‐1890s he wrote over thirty plays and librettos for Boston production. Playgoers around the country knew him best for two works: his libretto for one of the earliest full‐fledged American comic operas, The Doctor of Alcantara (1862), and his comedy about American politics and materialism, The Mighty Dollar (1875). His nephew, Edgar Allen Woolf (1881–1943), was also a playwright and librettist.