Nazimova: A Biography

by Gavin Lambert

Book Overview

A forgotten legend, Alla Nazimova was an electrifying Russian-born actress who brought Stanislavksy and Chekhov to American theatre, who was applauded, praised, adored -- an icon of the stage and screen for forty years, before fading into the shadows of time. Gavin Lambert unearthed Nazimova's unpublished memoirs, letters, and notes, writing an evocative retelling of her extraordinary life.

Nazimova began her career on stage. Her shockingly...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0813153425
• ISBN13: 9780813153421
• Release Date: November 2021
• Publisher: University Press of Kentucky
• Length: 432 Pages
• Weight: 1.33 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.2" x 6.3" x 9.2"

Customer Reviews

What a fascinating life, on so many levels

Gavin Lambert is a mesmerizing writer. He chronicles Nazimova's hellish childhood (which shaped all that followed, I believe), her dramatic rise on the stage (where she did her best work) her Hollywood years and beyond. I find it sad that her stage performances exist only in the memories of those who were lucky enough to see her back in the day, and those people are leaving us very quickly. Nazimova strikes me as a woman who could be infuriating, frustrating, difficult, kind, generous, funny, certainly her own worst enemy at times, and sometimes all of the above in the same moment. The fun she would have during performances made me laugh out loud, and the stupid choices she made for film made me say "no, don't DO that" to the pages of this meticulously researched book. About her sister and niece, I have no kind words whatsoever, and I can thoroughly understand why Lambert dismissed anything the niece had to say. I can't wait to read the other film-related books that Gavin Lambert has written - I'm so glad I started with this one.

also a decendent of Alla

Would the person who identified themself as a grandaughter of Allah please contact me? I am also supposedly related to Alla, a cousin doing a family search. My grandmother Hannah, was the sister to Allah's (Marion's) mother in Ukraine. Also, I may actually know the decendents of Allah's mother Sonja, through her later marriage, one who would be her younger half-brother! He is still alive at 92! DR drifkin@msn.com

The Nazimova Few Know About

Most people only know the Alla Nazimova through her connection with Rudolph Valentino and her "gay" silent film "Salome." She is nearly always reviled as a domineering, spiteful lesbian queen of Hollywood whose own ego led to her fall. This book provides a completely different picture of the woman behind the name. Her horrendous treatment as a child definitely molded her personality. An extremely talented actress, she earned her stardom on stage, screen and then stage again, inspiring many of the greatest playwrites of the early 20th century to write plays, many for her. The author reveals much of Nazimova's sadness and disappointment in her personal life and career, her gullibility when it came to trusting friends with her money, and the vast number of women and the few men with whom she had love affairs.Through exhaustive research of Nazimova's voluminous but unfinished (and unpublished) autobiography, interveiws with the few living persons who met her, and the letters and memoirs of a vast number of acquaintances and co-workers, the author has constructed a fascinating portrayal of a fragile, brilliant, yet tempermental child-woman who may well have been the greatest actress of at least the first half of the twentieth century. Readers will be surprised to read the rave accounts of Nazimova's unparalleled talent her from Truman Capote, Ibsen, Shaw and Katherine Hepburn, as well as the doting love and companionship showered on the elderly Nazimova by her godaughter Nancy Davis, later Nancy Reagan.I highly recommend this book to those who love silent films and bizzare, talented personalities.

Wonderful profile of an extremely amazing and talented actre

Alla Nazimova was my Godmother and I have heard many stories about her over the years so I was delighted to see a book written about her by Gavin Lambert. I found the book to be fastanating and learned so much about this woman who brought Ibsen and Chekhov among others to the theaters in America. She appears to be a very private yet complicated indivdual who knew exactly what she wanted and went after it with her whole being. She accomplished so much on the stage and in films that it is a shame so few people today remember her. Perhaps Lambert's book will rekindle that interest again in such a great lady of the theater.

wonderfull piece of hollywood and alla history

I recently finished reading the book, wonderfully detail, loved each chapter, me being a hollywood historian found it extremely helpfull. Extremely interesting profile,(really fair) of the life of Madame Nazimova as well as a great insight on hollywood history, totally recomended. Thank you very much Gavin Sincerely Octavio Carlin