Starring Madame Modjeska

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).

Starring Madame Modjeska . . . makes an important contribution to our understanding of Western theatre history. Scholars as well as theatre enthusiasts will surely benefit from this well-organized and meticulously researched study of a true international star of the nineteenth century. (cosmopolitanreview.com) While theater enthusiasts will enjoy the care and detail that Beth Holmgren took with Starring Madame Modjeska, readers of history will appreciate the role this woman played on the world's stage. It makes for great drama. (newpages.com) The breadth of Holmgren's research is impressive, as is her talent as a writer. Her achievement is to have put together from many disparate sources an immensely readable narrative. (Women's Review of Books) Starring Madame Modjeska is based on very solid archival research, yet it is written with lightness and grace—qualities inspired by the character of the formidable protagonist of this excellent book.(Slavic Review) Holmgren's study is a truly transnational biography, elegantly written and immaculately researched. Its real achievement is to make Modrzejewska whole, not just by bridging two national narratives but by integrating her public and private personae. . . . Starring Madame Modjeska will be of interestto scholars of nineteenth-century Poland, world theater, and American immigration.(H-Poland H-Net Reviews) Beth Holmgren's book is a monograph of Helena Modrzejewska/Modjeska . . . , the famous Polish-American stage star. The author's purpose was 'to introduce a little-remembered actress to a new American audience' . . . . This plan was successfully completed. Starring Madame Modjeska is not just a popularized biography but a result of meticulous research and intellectual elaboration.(Pol-Int)

• AcknowledgmentsTimeline of Modjeska's Life and Career1. Debut2. The Making of a Polish Actress3. Warsaw's State of the Stars4. A Colonial Party and the California Dream5. On the American Road6. The Roles of Madame Modjeska7. The Polish Modjeska8. Farewell TourEpilogue: Finding Modjeska TodayNotesBibliographyIndex