Pamela Colman Smith

[poliphilo]

Pamela Colman Smith (1878-1951) co-creator of the Rider Waite Tarot.

Visionary artist, writer, music lover, story-teller (specialising in Jamaican folktales and English ballads),  born in Brooklyn, raised in Jamaica, worked with the Lyceum Theatre Group, suffragette, initiated into the Golden Dawn, illustrated Bram Stoker's Lair of the White Worm, friend of Ellen Terry and W.B. Yeats (who may have helped her with Tarot symbolism), converted to Catholicism, retired to Cornwall where she ran a rest home for Catholic priests, known to her friends as "Pixie"...

Comments

[lblanchard.livejournal.com]

Fond memories of that deck...

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

It's the one indispensable deck, I think.

[amritarosa.livejournal.com]

I have always loved this photo of her.

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

She looks mischievous. I'm not entirely sure what she has on her head.

[dadi.livejournal.com]

I have always found her one of the most fascinating women ever.

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

We know so little about her. There's no biography and her life's work got scattered in a sale after her death. It would be good if someone made her their project. She's still within living memory (just) and there must still be people around who knew her in old age.

[cmcmck.livejournal.com]

A wonderfully cheeky smile! :o)

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

She was tiny too...

[chochiyo-sama.livejournal.com]

She looks like a clever little pixie

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

She certainly was :)