RARE! "Russian Countess" Irina Skariatina Signed 5.75X3.5 Card COA

Description: Up for auction a RARE! "Russian Countess" Irina Skariatina Hand Signed 5.75X3.5 Card. This item is authenticated By Todd Mueller Autographs and comes with their certificate of authenticity. ES-2820 Irina Skariatina, Formerly Countess of Imperial Russia, and Writer of “Best Seller,” Is Tolerant with Bolsheviks NEW YORK, Aug. 29.—1 t is refreshing in this age of ultra-so-1 phistication and modernism, when blase boredom is considered the hallmark of smartness, to meet a successful author who is not ashamed to confess hersell thrilled to death by success. It is also strange to find such a one departing from the custom, beloved by, the so-called intclligonsia, of bcI rating America and things Ameri- ; i can, and declaring with vehement enthusiasm that she is proud of being a citizen of this "beautiful country.” Such a person is Irina Skariatina, formerly Countess Wladimirovna Keller, of Imperial Russia, author of the latest best thriller, “A World Can End.” Born to the wealth and luxury that was a feature of court life in 5 the land of the Czars before the revolution as the daughter of Princess Mary Lobanov, direct do- j scendant of Rurik, first prince of! Russia, anil General Wladitnir Skariatinc, this authoress had the ! upbringing of one born to the purple. She was educated at home by private tutors and, after her debut at the court of Czar Nicholas, was created Maid of Honor to the Empress Alexandria. Her experience in that honorable role was to prove of great value to her in after life, the court atmosphere with its petty jealousies and intrigue being valuable material for one who starts out to build a career with the pen. While at court she was married to Count Alexander Keller, of the Chevalier Guard Regiment, but as the union was one of those arranged affairs, common in court ; circles, it didn’t endure and the inevitable separation came quite soon. During the World War, Countess Keller took up nursing and was decorated for her war work. Then came tjie Revolution and the crash of Russian nobility. The young Countess stayed in Pclrograd all through the terrible "ten days that shook the world" and for the fearful months that followed. She not only saw everything that went on in the storm center but recorded the happenings faithfully in her diary—a translation of which lakes up a large section of her hook. As was to be expected, she was cast into prison where she would have died, like hundreds of others, but for the intervention of Dr, Frank Colder, of Leland Stanford University, and Dr. Herschel C. Walker, head of the Petrograd division of the American Relief Administration, who won her freedom and helped her to reach sanctuary in England. Dr, Colder smuggled the diary, round which her new book is built, out of Bolshevik-rid-den Russia. Countess Keller landed in America on July 4, 1923, when the firecracker bararge was at its height, so her first impression of America war. that of a carnival country. She has never lost that impression. In 1926, the Russian noblewoman married Lieut. Victor F, Blakeslee, of the United Stales Navy. Their home is in St. David's. Pa., where they lead a simple life, the quiet environment of which has done much to erase the memory of the era of horror through which Mrs. Blakeslee lived during the Russian cataclysm. Mrs. Blakeslee was made an American citizen in 11)20—an event which she regards as the proudest moment of her eventful life. Chief of the authoress's admirable characteristics is her total lack of bitterness or hatred toward the iconoclasts who tore down all that she held sacred. Philosophically she asks, when approached on her attitude toward the Bolshevists: “Can one be angry with a phase of history?” “A World Can End” is the first book from the pen of the Countess who prefers to be known as Mrs. Blakeslee, American, but it is not her last. She is out to make a career of writing and who can say that she hasn’t got off to a flying start? Virginia was named in honor of the virgin Queen Elizabeth of England. The nickname, 'Old Dominion' is often applied to the state. Contrasted with so many native American authors who take keen pleasure in belaboring their country in their works, Irina Skariatina, formerly a Countess of Imperial Russia, and a woman whose greatest thrill in life came when she was naturalized as an American, declares with vehement enthusiasm that she is proud to be a citizen of this “beautiful country.” The former Countess Wladimirovna Keller beheld all the tragedies which the Russian revolution wrought, but she maintains a tolerant attitude over the Red invasion of her homeland, as she knew it, and explains her remarkable stand with the words, "Can anyone be angry with a phase of history?” Now Mrs. Blakeslee, wife of an American naval officer, she has just completed a book devoted to many of her experiences in Russia during the Red terror.

Price: 299.99 USD

Location: Fort Lauderdale, Florida

End Time: 2024-11-21T11:36:08.000Z

Shipping Cost: 0 USD