The bulk of this collection consists of the manuscript, in English, of the French translation of Loie Fuller's autobiography published by
F. Juven in Paris in
1908. In stylistically different English...
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The bulk of this collection consists of the manuscript, in English, of the French translation of Loie Fuller's autobiography published by
F. Juven in Paris in
1908. In stylistically different English from the manuscript, the French translation was published by
H. Jenkins in London in
1913. The French edition was called
Quinze ans de ma vie, and the English edition was called
Fifteen years of a dancer's life. The manuscript is arranged according to the order of the English edition and is lacking only chapter 11 and sections of chapters 6 and 21. It covers a few childhood events but primarily the events of the years from 1892-1907, including experiences with
Isadora Duncan (folder 20) who is not identified by name. The published English version of the autobiography loses some of the stylistic idiosyncrasies of the author's original manuscript. The published manuscript is followed by material, mostly anecdotal, and unpublished, meant for the autobiography; outline plans for a second volume and material which would have become a part of it; two essays, America and Americans and The Boston blue-stocking; a legal document releasing her from a contract with
Charles A. Hoyt and
Charles W. Thomas in 1892; programs, including a holograph paste-up of her first performance in Kiel, undated, and a flyer-program presenting
Gertrud Von Axen to Boston (?), undated; 12 photographs of Loie Fuller; 30 photographs of friends, admirers and fellow dancers, including Gertrud Von Axen and
Dick Fuller (possibly a niece); and a portfolio of 23 watercolors presented to her by students of the
Beaux-Arts on the occasion of her 550th performance in Paris, March 24, 1895.
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