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Pamela Colman Smith - (Clemson University Press W/ Lup) by Elizabeth Foley O'Connor (Paperback)
About this item
Highlights
- Pamela Colman Smith's illustrations for the Rider Waite tarot deck are known to millions worldwide, but her work took her from art galleries in New York and Europe to salons with luminaries of the English suffrage movement, the Irish literary revival, and friendships with Bram Stoker, W. B. Yeats, and G. K. Chesterton.
- Author(s): Elizabeth Foley O'Connor
- 329 Pages
- Biography + Autobiography, Literary Figures
- Series Name: Clemson University Press W/ Lup
Description
Book Synopsis
Pamela Colman Smith's illustrations for the Rider Waite tarot deck are known to millions worldwide, but her work took her from art galleries in New York and Europe to salons with luminaries of the English suffrage movement, the Irish literary revival, and friendships with Bram Stoker, W. B. Yeats, and G. K. Chesterton.
A feminist artist, poet, folklorist, editor, publisher, and stage designer who was active from 1896 through the 1920s, Colman Smith became popular for her live performances of Jamaican folktales in both England and the U.S., using the creole
of the island to capture the dramatic power of these tales while driving speculation about her purposefully indeterminate racial and sexual identity. She also travelled in - and was expelled from - occult circles, and her ability to take on and cast aside a wide range of identities was central to her life's work.
Colman Smith illustrated more than 20 books and well over a hundred magazine articles, wrote two collections of Jamaican folktales, and edited two magazines. Her paintings were exhibited in galleries in the U.S. and Europe.
Review Quotes
'By utilizing archival material, Foley O'Connor has produced the first scholarly biography of Colman Smith, a work that will no doubt prove invaluable for those interested in further researching this significant artist's role in the occult milieu of early twentieth-century Britain.' Ethan Doyle White, Nova Religio
'Foley O'Connor takes the reader on a moving ride through Colman Smith's unconventional and trailblazing life. [...] With passion and dedication to her subject, Foley O'Connor portrays Colman Smith as a magical tour de force; she details Colman Smith's small victories and massive losses in an informative tone that still makes for an emotional read as we watch Colman Smith achieve a modicum of success only for it to be lost or taken away again. [...] Through the eyes of Foley O'Connor, Pixie has a second chance to be appreciated for the thoroughly modern woman and artist she was.' Jill O'Connor, Supernatural Studies