Book description
In 1876, Poland's leading actress, Helena Modrzejewska, accompanied
by family and friends, emigrated to southern California to establish a
utopian commune that soon failed. Within a year Modrzejewska made her
debut in the title role of Adrienne Lecouvreur at San Francisco's
California Theatre. She changed her name to Modjeska and quickly
became a leading star on the American stage, where she reigned for the
next 30 years. During this time, she established herself as America's
most esteemed Shakespearean actress, playing opposite such celebrated
actors as Edwin Booth and Maurice Barrymore. Starring Madame Modjeska
traces Modjeska's fabulous life and career from her illegitimate birth
in Krakow, to her successive reinventions of herself as a star in both
Poland and America, and finally to her enduring legacy.
"Starring Madame Modjeska is a tour de force... Modjeska's
story is conveyed in clear, vivid, witty prose." -Bo?ena
Shallcross, University of Chicago
Beth Holmgren is Professor of Slavic and Eurasian Studies and
Theater Studies at Duke University. She is author of Women's Works in
Stalin's Time (IUP, 1993), editor (with Helena Goscilo) of Poles
Apart: Women in Modern Polish Culture and Russia ? Women ? Culture
(IUP, 1996), and translator and editor (with Helena Goscilo) of The
Keys to Happiness by Anastasya Verbitskaya (IUP, 1999).
