Author(s): Dawn G. Robinson
Pamela Colman Smith is the mysterious artist behind the most renowned tarot deck in the world, for many years forgotten. In a revival of interest in esoteric artists and accessible tarot, curiosity about Pamela is now on the ascendant, but there are still many unanswered questions, especially concerning her later life.
Born in London to American parents, Smith was a prolific illustrator/artist who mixed with the great and good of art and theatre, among them W. B. Yeats and Bram Stoker. ‘Adopted’ by actress Ellen Terry, she spent some years with the Lyceum Theatre crowd, also working as an exotic storyteller known as Gelukiezanger in bohemian London.
People have questioned her sexuality, ethnic origins and alleged synaesthesia, assuming her to be biracial and lesbian. These are discussed but the biggest mystery of all is why she converted from mysticism to Catholicism in 1911, removing herself from vibrant London to the isolated Lizard in the west of Cornwall.
There, living in relative obscurity, she evangelised Catholicism in a heavily non-conformist area before moving to Bude in her sixties.
BOOK ISBN | 9781781557419 |
FORMAT | 234 x 156 mm |
BINDING | Paperback |
PAGES | 232 pages |
PUBLICATION DATE | 02 March 2020 |
TERRITORY | World |
ILLUSTRATIONS | 32 colour photographs |