Gilbert and Sullivan or "entertainments", for Thomas German Reed. At a rehearsal for one of these entertainments, "Ages Ago", in 1870, the composer Frederic Clay introduced Gilbert to his friend, the young composer Arthur Sullivan. Over the next year, before the two first collaborated, Gilbert continued to write humorous verse, stories and plays, including the comic operas "Our Island Home" (1870) and "A Sensation Novel" (1871), and the blank verse comedies "The Princess" (1870), "The Palace of Truth" (1870) and "Pygmalion and Galatea" (1871). Sullivan was born in London on 13 May 1842. His father was a military bandmaster, and by the time
Martyn Green of Gilbert & Sullivan" (New York, Simon & Schuster) in 1961. There are two editions of "Here's a How-de-do". The American edition (New York, W. W. Norton & Co., 275 pp.) is somewhat more candid and expansive in dealing with D'Oyly Carte personalities and situations than its British counterpart (London, Max Reinhardt, 210 pp.). He also wrote an introduction to Leslie Ayre's 1972 "The Gilbert & Sullivan Companion", in which he commented wryly that the Gilbert and Sullivan operas "have been translated into many languages, including American and Australian..." Green's papers are housed at the Howard Gotlieb Archival Research Center