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Mijn belangstelling voor Isadora Duncan spoorde vrijwel naadloos met mijn belangstelling voor Edward Gordon Craig,zoon van De Grote Actrice Ellen Terry, vader van Noordwijkse Deirdre (zie Noordwijk 2: Isadora Duncan). Zijn brieven aan Isadora worden bewaard in de Bibliothèque de l’Arsénal in Parijs, maar zonder aanbeveling uit hogere wetenschappelijke kring kom je daar niet voorbij de Cerberus die de collectie bewaart/bewaakt. Later in Florence nog her en der gezocht naar straten, villa’s, theaters (Goldoni) en restaurants waar Craig in enigerlei gedaante tenminste nog geestelijk aanwezig kon zijn: meest nabij voelde ik hem in de Giubbe Rosse op de Piazza della Republica, bij een Campari con Zuccho d’Arrance. Ik zat daar met de biografie die zoon Edward Anthony Craig over zijn vader schreef. EAC benaderde ik prompt met een brief die hij enkele weken later beantwoordde, vervuld van een zekere melancholie en droefenis over de wijze waarop de dingen gelopen zijn, zoals ze nu eenmaal gelopen zijn. Integraal:
Edward A. Craig Cutler’s Orchard, Bledlow, Aylesbury Bucks, HP17 9PA, 30.IX.78. Dear Pjotr, I have been away from home for a long time trying to get a rest and am only just beginning to answer all the letters that have piled up. I am glad that you liked my book on EGC but sorry that I cannot help you any further with your search for information about Isadora Duncan in Holland. I helped Steegmuller all I could with his book and he had access to all the documents that I used in my book plus the letters. The radio talks about Isadora, recorded by ‘Discurio’ are no longer available and have become collectors items, but I should think that the BBC could let you have a transcription of the talk on Isadora if you were to write to them. But it tells nothing about the sad period in Noordwijk.
You refer to Isadora’s “Diary” but I suppose you mean her socalled “life” written when she was in need of money. In Steegmullers book you will find many books refered to which are worthy of study, in particular Martin Shaw’s autobiography. The memoirs of Kathleen Bruce are most unreliable. I think that there is some mistake about my meeting Klaas de Bes. I never met him though I met the agent who let them the house, but unluckily I can remember nothing of the conversation except that they were very short of money. Poor Isadora her moments of great elation were always followed by despair when suicide seemed the only way out and drowning seem the best way; Italy, Holland, France.
I hope your study can help to make the tragedy of her life easier to understand. Like many Americans she had a natural feeling for publicity, and used it to further her work and then believed it herself. The birth of her third child [which only lived an hour or so] was the end and once again the father “didn’t want to know.” Every good wish to your endeavour. Yours Edward Craig.