Name/Title
Eva Palmer Sikelianos: A Life in RuinsEntry/Object ID
2019.005Description
A biography of Eva Palmer Sikelianos, written by the Chair of the Department of Classical Studies at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor.
"This is the first biography to tell the fasincating story of Eva Palmer Sikelianos (1874-1952), an American actor, director, composer, and weaver best known for reviving the Delphic Fesitvals. Yet, as Artemis Leontis reveals, palmer's most spectacular performance was her daily revival of ancient Greek life. For almost half a century, dressed in handmade Greek tunics and sandals, she sought to make modern life freer and more beautiful through a creative engagement with the ancients. Along the way, she crossed paths with other seminal modern artists such as Natalie Clifford barnet, Renee Vivien, Isadora Duncan, Susan Glaspell, George Cram Cook, Richard Strauss, Dimitri Mitropoulos, Nikos Kazantzakis, George Seferis, Henry Miller, Paul Robeson and Ted Shawn.
Brilliant and gorgeous, with floor-length auburn hair, Palmer was a wealthy New York debutante who studied Greek at Bryn Mawr College before turning her back on conventional society to live a lesbian life in Paris. She later followed Raymond Duncan and his wife to Greece and married the Greek poet Angelos Sikelianos in 1907. With single-minded purpose, palmer re-created ancient art forms, staging Greek tragedy with her own choreography, costumes, and even music. Having exhausted her inheritance, she returned to the UNited States in 1933, was blacklistred for criticizing the American imperalism during the Cold War, and was barred from returning to Greece until just before her death."Collection
Richard W. Woolworth Library, BooksBook Details
Author
Leontis, ArtemisPublisher
Princeton University PressDate Published
2019Publication Language
English