Author Description

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1907 Excerpt: ...got a little American blood left in me yet and I'll turn the Palace into a tannery or a church or a slaughter-house before I let you fellows gouge me out of my last cent. The B.--You make me sick. Get out! Skiddoo! Twenty-three! F ART speaks with a universal tongue, it would seem that the title of artist must be denied to Mme. Nazimova. No reference is meant in this statement to her deficiencies in speaking English, because in that particular it is possible to note a considerable improvement over her earlier performances. But piquant and interesting as is her personality, she still leaves it very seriously open to question whether she possesses the power to conceive an emotion, even a most elemental one, and convey her conception to the understanding of her audience. In our interest in the personality of the woman we are likely to forget that it is her duty as an artist to give us some tangible idea of the character and the emotions she is seeking or should seek to portray. So far in her career on the American stage she has failed to carry conviction that she is much more than a poseuse, if her great vivacity and unique methods can be harmonized with the commonly accepted meaning of the word posing. She gives one the impression of thinking only of the momentary effect of what she is doing rather than of constructing a complete and logical entirety. With the hysterical adulation lavished on her efforts by unthinking admirers of her certainly interesting personality, she may easily be forgiven for believing that in America anything that the multitude cannot understand will pass for art. In "The Master Builder" Ibsen goes so far into the realms of mysticism and symbolism that a more sincere exponent of the actor's art than Mme. Nazimova seems to be m...