Thomas Hailes Lacy

Lacy made his West End stage debut in 1828 but soon turned manager, a position he held from 1841 at The Theatre in Sheffield (destroyed by fire in 1935).

He would appear with his wife when she played Countess Wintersen in The Stranger, Nerissa in The Merchant of Venice, and Virginia in James Sheridan Knowles's Virginius.

[1] In the mid-1840s, Lacy set up a business as a theatrical bookseller in London, at first in Wellington Street, Covent Garden and, from 1857, at 89 Strand.

[2] He also ventured into publishing with an innovative approach to playscripts, producing acting editions of recent plays so that each actor could have a full script to work from.

[3] In 1859, he made the acquaintance of American entrepreneur Samuel French, who had started a similar publishing business in New York City five years earlier and was visiting London.