In 1904 be went on the stage as a member of the F. R. Benson company and in 1906 he became secretary, assistant, and play-reader to Granville Barker, with whom he stayed until 1915.
[1] Although Wade continued to act occasionally for many years, his theatrical interests gradually moved towards direction.
[1] In his spare time Wade formed extensive collections of the works and fugitive pieces of his favourite living writers – W. B. Yeats, Henry James, Joseph Conrad and Max Beerbohm, hunting out their anonymous contributions to periodicals and copying them out by hand in the British Museum.
In 1948 he edited James's then unknown dramatic criticism as The Scenic Art, published by Rupert Hart-Davis in 1950, with an introduction by Leon Edel.
[1][4] Wade died suddenly on 12 July 1955 aged 74, leaving a widow, Margot, whom he married in 1933.