WITH ILLUSTRATIONS
logo of publisher
BOSTON AND NEW YORK
HOUGHTON MIFFLIN COMPANY
MDCCCCXVI
COPYRIGHT, 1915 AND 1916, BY THE CURTIS PUBLISHING COMPANY
COPYRIGHT, 1916, BY GERALDINE FARRAR-TELLEGEN
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED
Published March 1916
A DEDICATION
In offering these little sketches of some of the interesting events that have helped shape a career now fairly familiar to the general public, it has not been my intention to weary the indulgent reader with a lengthy dissertation of literary pretension, or tiresome data resulting from the obvious and oft-recurring "I."
From out the storehouse of memory, impressions crystallized into form without regard to time or place, and it was more than a passing pleasure to jot them down at haphazard; in the quiet of my library, on the flying train, or again, beneath the witchery of California skies, I scribbled as the mood prompted, as I would converse with an interested and congenial listener.
It is not, perhaps, a New England characteristic to expand in affectionate eulogy for the satisfaction of a curious public, but the threads of these recollections are so closely interwoven with maternal love and devotion, that this volume would be incomplete without its rightful dedication to
MY MOTHER
G. F.
CONTENTS
| I. | My Life As a Child | 1 |
| II. | The Dramatic Impulse | 8 |
| III. | I Resolve To Sing "Carmen" | 18 |
| IV. | My First Days in My Dream World | 28 |
| V. | I Refuse To Sing at the Metropolitan | 36 |
| VI. | Paris | 42 |
| VII. | Germany: The Turning-Point | 50 |
| VIII. | Imperial Encouragement | 59 |
| IX. | On Tour; Monte Carlo and Stockholm | 68 |
| X. | My Fourth Season | 77 |
| XI. | Leaving Berlin | 84 |
| XII. | My First Appearance in New York | 89 |
| XIII. | Misunderstandings | 99 |
| XIV. | The Days I Now Enjoy | 108 |
ILLUSTRATIONS
| "Columbia" (From a photograph by Ira L. Hill) | Jacketillustration |
| Geraldine Farrar (From a recent photograph by Victor Georg) | Frontispiece |
| Miss Farrar as a Little Girl in Melrose | 2 |
| Mr. and Mrs. Sydney D. Farrar | 4 |
| Miss Farrar and her First Singing Teacher, Mrs. Long | 8 |
| A Young Girl with a Phenomenal Soprano Voice | 12 |
| Growing up | 16 |
| The Goose Girl and her Flock | 22 |
| CalvÉ as "Carmen" | 24 |
| Jean de Reszke | 26 |
| Emma Thursby | 28 |
| Melba as "Marguerite" | 30 |
| Miss Farrar and her Mother | 32 |
| Dr. Holbrook Curtis | 36 |
| Maurice Grau | 38 |
| Five Well-known Parts | 42 |
| Camille Saint-SaËns | 46 |
| "I spent the Summer in Brittany" | 50 |
| The Royal Opera House, Berlin | 52 |
| The Kaiser | 54 |
| "My Third Season opened in 'Traviata'" | 56 |
| At Frau von Rath's | 60 |
| Lilli Lehmann | 62 |
| The Crown Prince of Germany | 64 |
| CÉcile, Crown Princess of Germany, and her Children | 66 |
| Massenet | 68 |
| Marconi | 70 |
| Caruso | 72 |
| King Oscar of Sweden | 74 |
| "Sans GÊne" | 80 |
| "La Tosca" | 82 |
| Wolf-Ferrari | 84 |
| Leaving Berlin | 86 |
| Mark Twain | 90 |
| "Madame Butterfly" | 92 |
| David Belasco | 94 |
| Sarah Bernhardt | 96 |
| "As Pretty a Flock of Birds as one could find" | 100 |
| As the Goose Girl in "KÖnigskinder" | 102 |
| Kate Douglas Wiggin | 104 |
| Miss Farrar and Caruso in "Julian" | 106 |
| As "Carmen" | 108 |
| Work and play in California | 110 |
| Making New Friends in the Movies | 112 |
Miss Farrar and Mr. Tellegen
(Photograph Reproduced by courtesy of the International Film Service, inc.) | 114 |
GERALDINE FARRAR
