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Mystique: a fascinating aura of mystery, awe, and power surrounding someone or something.

In this day and age of the electronic footprint following every detail of one’s life, from meals to social activities and liaisons, it is a rare experience to investigate the hidden tracks of a person’s life. Women during the Victorian time were encouraged only to be documented in the newspapers three times in their lifetimes: birth, marriage and death. And, often times, were only known as Mrs. So-and-So from marriage onwards, their maiden names being shed in matrimony.

In researching the life of Pamela Colman Smith, it has been a frustrating delight to follow countless leads as to her life from 1878-1951. Her artwork lives on in her Waite Smith Tarot cards, her paintings and numerous artwork pieces are revealed from time to time, but the actual participants in her life all passed away by the time I was on the trail to learn about this fascinating person. She had so many diverse and far-reaching environments to draw from: Jamaica, Brooklyn, Victorian England, Edwardian London and the west coast of the United Kingdom, Cornwall. The strata of family and friends ran the gamut from politicians to art gallery owners to theatre people to devout Catholics.

Even today there was an ‘Ah ha!’ moment in researching Pamela’s life. Her first showing in 1907 was at an art gallery held in an attic managed by Alfred Stieglitz at 291 Fifth Ave in New York City. She had also met John Baillie in London, who had started out as a painter in New Zealand and tried his hand as art gallery manager in London. John didn’t try to compete with the old-fashioned, well-established galleries at the time. He opened up his living quarters as a ‘salon’ and 50-60 guests would come through to look at the artwork staged at his quarters. One of his exhibits was called the ‘Neglected Artist’ exhibition. Artists from England and those he had known in New Zealand were among those shown. Here is a watercolor John Baillie did early in his painting career:

John Baillie is not recorded as having exhibited any of Pamela’s work, but Gordon Craig’s is listed as a contributor. Gordon Craig was Ellen Terry’s son and, for a while, Ellen was like surrogate mother to Pamela.  John Baillie’s connection to Pamela  is  interesting to follow for another reason; his sister, Rosa Baillie, became one of Pamela’s best friends. Rosa had followed her brother to London from Wellington, New Zealand and became part of the art world that Pamela was associating with at that time. John was a very enterprising and driven young man. In 1903, he had ten exhibitions listed in the Albert and Victoria Museum. John eventually returned to Wellington but because of his  experience and knowledge of British painting, Baillie was commissioned to organize two substantial art exhibitions that toured New Zealand. Rosa stayed in London and went on to marry there. She and her husband, before he went off to fight in WWI, were known to spend time with Pamela. Rosa went on to have a family and move out of London, some of her descendants inherited the name ‘Pamela’. 

The connection between John Baillie and Pamela was over, I thought, until today. I found an article on John’s career as an art promoter in Wellington when he left London. The article described how in 1914, Ellen Terry happened to be touring in Austraila and New Zealand and attended one of John Baillie’s exhibitions. She is quoted as saying, “She confessed she had to rub her eyes to remove the idea that she was in a Royal Academy “show”, at any rate in London or Paris, instead of 13,000 miles away and all blue water between them.” She then urged everyone she met during her tour in Wellington to attend John Baillie’s show. Later, in July of that same year, WWI started and  Rosa, Pamela and Ellen’s lives were forever changed. The bombings in London by zeppelins destroyed the livelihoods they were trying to create. But from Pamela’s friendship with John and Rosa Baillie, Ellen Terry appeared in New Zealand, promoting John’s work. And was Pamela the connection there, or was it because John had earlier presented Ellen’s son, Gordon Craig, in London that Ellen was praising him so? That is part of the delicious mystique of writing a series about Pamela Colman Smith; the complexity and silence surrounding her worlds make for fascinating sleuthing. Here is the article on the career of John Baillie:

https://www.tepapa.govt.nz/sites/default/files/tuhinga_28_mackle.pdf

Below is a link to an interview I recently did with Brigit Esselmont @biddytarot. It was delight to talk with her about one of my favorite subjects: Pamela Colman Smith.

https://www.biddytarot.com/btp117-secret-life-pamela-coleman-smith/

I was pondering about the fearlessness of Pamela Colman Smith, how many times she picked up and moved in her lifetime. She was born in England in 1878 and was a world-traveler before she was even twenty-one years of age. About the same time, she created the iconic tarot deck, the Waite Smith deck. And how many different sorts of art she created: children’s books, paintings, set designs, costume designs and her most famous creation, her tarot cards. Pamela’s passing in 1951 precluded her knowledge that her cards would become cherished purchases in over twenty countries, but, thanks to Stuart Kaplan at U.S. Games Systems, Inc. reissuing them in 1973, they have become an international best-seller. She herself would grow up to live in such places as Jamaica, Brooklyn, London, Exeter and Cornwall. She was born to American parents: a ‘parlour actress’ mother and an accountant father who collected Japanese art. Her grandfather on her mother’s side, Cyrus P. Smith was the first popular mayor of Brooklyn.

Her background seems to define the world cosmopolitan. Yet, there is an account of someone meeting her and saying, “She and her father are the most primitive Americans possible, but I like them much”. And who said this? John Butler Yeats, who co-edited a publication with Pamela in 1902 called A Broadsheet. It raises the question, what was primitive about her? A laugh too loud, an ‘impertinent’ remark, a blunt nature? Jack, brother to William Butler Yeats, was part of the circle of artists who populated a community who were interested in creating their own newspapers, publications and art quarterlies. He started as an artist in London drawing a comic strip satire on Sherlock Holmes, called “Chubb-Lock Homes”. He obviously got over her primitive nature enough to want to collaborate with this independent artist.
To say that Pamela was an independent is an understatement. She lost both her parents by the time she was 19 and took an engagement to tour with Sir Henry Irving’s Lyceum Theatre. At a time when most young women were chaperoned or escorted everywhere, Pamela lived with a roommate while art school at the Pratt Institute of Art. She also rented various lodgings around London, on her own and spent time with Ellen Terry at her country house.
Was she fearless? She certainly was not afraid to stand out. There are accounts of how ‘oddly’ she dressed: gypsy–like gowns, beads and coral in her hair, an orange blouse and green cape. As an actress performing her one-woman show of Jamaican fairy tales from her Annancycollection prompted reviews lauding her mastery of the Jamaican accent and nuance. The beads around her neck, crow feathers in her hair and fringed shawls added to her Bohemian look. One review one of her performances of William Butler Yeats material mentions the green cloak drawn closer around her face and only one nervous hand visible. So, there was fear there, but on she went. She advertised her one-woman shows in her The Green Sheaf periodicals and managed to get bookings of her performing into the drawing rooms of London, Brooklyn and Manhattan, but all were through word of mouth. She had no manager, publicity person, twitter account or PR campaign to help her get the word out on her work.

But she did write several essays on what she thought about art, how passionately she felt that the artist be genuine and authentic. That a true artist sees theatre, nature and researches the essence of what it is that they are trying to capture. She said that there was a place for ugliness, as well as beauty in art. There is so much unknown about how Pamela managed to survive as an artist in Victorian and Edwardian London and a lot of her work may have perished in the fire bombs of WWI and WWII. However, one indication of her philosophy is the motto she adapted as she began studying the Golden Dawn’s course: ‘Quod tibi id alliis’ – ‘Whatever you would have done to thee, do unto others’. It shows a very charitable philosophy of how to treat one another despite a career eking out a living as an artist.
My first book in the series on Pamela Colman Smith, Magician and Fool, is now published by i2i Publishing and is out in the world. The second book in the series, High Priestess and Empress, is written and going through the first developmental edits, and the third book, Emperor and Hierophant, is just beginning to find its legs. I find as I research Pamela’s life, I join a chorus of people who not only are devoted to her tarot cards for inspiration, but to her way of life; as independent and stalwart artist. What it must have been like for her to keep going when the returns were so small – it makes my head spin. It certainly brings me up short when I feel powerless or helpless in my attempts to bring my creations to life. But then I read accounts of her large laugh filling a room, or seeing her mischievous smile in a drawing or a photograph and feel that along that with her own despair and toil, she also led a full life. One of my favorite quotes from her is “Feel Everything!” In this time of some hopelessness, fear and discouragement, she inspires me to continue to create and feel every step of the way. I remember to laugh and enjoy this big, beautiful life that we are given. Her self-published venture, The Green Sheaf, is a good example of following your heart, fearlessly.

Myth is history by consensus. The idea of the success of a book or publication has been on my mind, now that Magician and Fool is published and out in the world. If success postmortem is a myth ascribed to Bram Stoker for Dracula and Pamela Colman Smith for her tarot deck, it is interesting to see how they helped one another during their time together, unaware that their artistic offspring would live long after their association.

In 1925, the fourth printing of Bram’s Dracula by Rider Publishers, featured a book cover that looks very much like one of Pamela’s tarot cards.

There are clues of the rocky road to publishing for both Pamela and Bram in the biographies of Bram Stoker by Barbara Belford and David J. Skal. Bram’s own book, Personal Reminiscences of Henry Irving, and Ellen Terry’s The Story Of My Life, depict the forty years Bram spent with the Lyceum Theatre, being the devoted second-in-command to Sir Henry Irving. Irving seems to have been the model for the main character in Dracula, a charismatic blood sucker. Pamela had many stops and starts to earning a living as an artist, writing letters where she wrote ‘Damn!’ in describing her relationship with publishers.

Bram Stoker, a burly Irishman who stood six foot two, was devoted to Henry Irving, and became the force of organized energy behind the six international tours of the Lyceum Theatre to America. He was also the conduit for Pamela’s tarot cards with The Golden Dawn and to Rider Publisher, the Publisher who eventually published her cards in 1910. ‘Uncle Brammie’ was the possible introduction of Pamela to Sir Henry Irving and her placement with the Lyceum Theatre Company tour to American in 1899.

Bram started as a theatre critic in Dublin and after a rave review for Henry in a touring production, was invited to come along and be Henry’s right-hand man. Bram grew up attending the literary salons of Oscar Wilde’s mother in Dublin and went to Trinity College. His aspirations to write were thwarted by his overwhelming responsibilities to the theater and to Sir Henry, staying up many nights until dawn post show with him while the actor unwound from a performance. Sir Henry once called Bram ‘his secretary’, but Bram fought to be his main speech writer and confident, a position that did not last.

Bram was also smitten with the Ellen Terry, the leading lady of the Lyceum Theatre Company. Ellen signed this photo of Bram and she riding in the Lyceum theatre’s train cars as they toured the country: ‘The Honeymoon! B.S. E.T.’

 She called him ‘Pa’, he called her ‘Ma’, and they became the heart for the company while Sir Henry reigned as the autocrat, said to be distant from most people, unless they asked after his dog, Fussie, or his rheumatism. But it seemed a merry company, undertaking a crushing schedule. Pamela befriended Ellen’s daughter, Edy Craig, and set out learning Egyptian hieroglyphics from Sir Henry as the toured.

In this drawing of Pamela’s, Ellen has ‘U.S.A. Plaza’ on her maid’s cap while she serves tea, Bram has ‘H.M.S. Dracula’ on his cap, while Henry’s upside down top hat has ‘H.M.S. Lyceum’ inscribed on the broad ribbon. The possible symbol for the astrological sign Libra and the symbol for the moon crown of Isis, which is in Pamela’s High Priestess tarot card, are seen floating above them from Henry’s book. Edy and Pamela were said to be studying with Henry but judging from their impish looks, studying was not their intent.

But Bram seems to have taken an interest in Pamela during this tour. Edy and Ellen were as close as family at one time, Henry calling Pamela ‘Ellen’s Red Haired Devil’, although Pamela was never known to have red hair. When Edy and her brother were young and Henry and Ellen were having an affair, the siblings would provide critical feedback if Henry asked them about his performances. Stories of Edy sitting on Henry’s lap and advising to talk like he did at home with them showed an intimacy in their early years. In fact, Bram Stoker, Ellen Terry and Henry Irving were dubbed ‘The Unholy Trinity’. To this day on the back of the Lyceum Theater, you can see their three names etched into the building.

During the days of the Lyceum, Bram had an interest in the occult, as he continued to fine tune his Dracula. Did he introduce her to Arthur Waite, as he looked for an artist to co-create his deck of tarot cards? It is said she was brought to Watkins Books where a meeting took place. After the initial run of Pamela’s tarot cards by Sprague and Sons, the tarot deck they created was published by Rider, the same publishers who put out Bram’s Dracula in 1925. Hence, the title of Pamela’s cards the Rider Waite deck. Since Dracula had other release dates, (1897, 1901 and1910) it’s possible that Pamela introduced Bram to Rider Publishing. Bram’s last book, The White Worm, was published the year after her tarot deck was published and featured drawings by Pamela. They kept in touch as the Lyceum Theatre company disbanded and connections as a theatre family were severed.

The other image of Bram and Pamela together is from another drawing she did while they were shipboard with the Lyceum Theatre American Tour. It was drawn in 1899, and depicts Pamela and Edy in conversation with Bram. Pamela’s signature is in the lower right hand corner of this drawing which was placed in all her tarot cards. Bram’s H.M.S. Dracula cap and Pamela’s oriental/pixie/pirate outfit symbolizes their lasting identities. ‘Uncle Brammie’ may not have realized the impact of his book’s effect with Dracula, as Pamela would not with her tarot cards, but the connection they had with one another lives on in their joint projects.

October 2017 was the month of harvest for a crop planted over eight years ago. My book, Magician and Fool, was printed by i2i Publishing in England on October 4th and there were plans afoot to launch it in London. With the book now in tangible form, I flew to London for talks, inquiries and canvassing. I was to speak at Atlantis Bookshop and Watkins Books, and present a booth with my book at the UK Tarot Conference and try to interest book stores into stocking the book. When I checked into the Thistle City Barbican Hotel, my nerves were frayed at the thought that the books hadn’t arrived, making this trip a moot point, but Lionel Ross, my publisher, had made sure the four heavy boxes of books were waiting in the luggage room. I was never so happy to lug four twenty-three pound boxes to my hotel room. Here is a my table at the hotel for the UK Tarot Conference, flowers courtesy of my friends and family.

On the flight over, I thought about the travails that Pamela went through in publishing her literary magazine, The Green Sheaf. In 1903, The Green Sheaf was a self-published venture based on subscriptions, lasting only a year, with 13 issues published. Here is a photo of the first edition:

Pamela hand colored the illustrations, she taught classes in hand coloring and hired herself out to hand color other people’s artwork. In her magazine, several contributors’ work appears: Cecil French, Gordon Craig (Ellen Terry’s son and Edy Craig’s brother), William Butler Yeats and Christopher St John. In this symbol of the magazine, are the green sheafs pictures currency bills or works of literature that make up the magazine? Green ink was the favored color in the sign in book of Pamela’s soirees, perhaps it was a nod to her collaborations during her nights of gathered illustrious guests.

The first day, I took my press packet/sample book package to as many indie bookstores that I could from Mayfair to Picadilly. Later in the day, I brought a box of books to Atlantis Bookshop, where owners, Geraldine Beskin and her daughter, Bali, let me present a talk on Pamela to their downstairs space. Geraldine and Bali were enthusiastic and supportive, stocking copies of my book after my talk and captivating Sasha Graham, a tarot conference key speaker and dear friend, who had come with me to hear the talk at Atlantis.

Geraldine, Susan and Bali

Atlantis Bookshop is an occult bookstore specializing in The Golden Dawn, so I was not surprised to see one-of-a-kind editions on their shelves. The mood of the stores was serious fun, with a museum-type vibe to the artifacts in stock. Sasha and I went to a pub across the street from the British Museum afterwards and I was cheered by Sasha’s expert approval of my talk. The first talk about Pamela was now completed but the next talk was the one to test my nerves.

The next day was the talk at Watkins Books, which was something I was planning since I visited the shop in June. Watkins Books figures in the storyline of Magician and Fool and I was thrilled to be doing the reading right in front of the booth area where Swami Krishna had read my palm after my first visit. Would the presentation go as well as was predicted? Late in the afternoon, Carrie Paris and her husband, Robert, very kindly helped me schlep my twenty-three pound box of books in the car to Watkins Books and helped me set up the book table. Then they helped me calm down, drink water, get focused for the talk. Here is a photo of the book table with the merchandise that my twin sister, Cynthia Wands, had designed that they set up.

I had also asked Bryan Cranston to come and say a quick hello at Watkins Books during the course of my presentation on Pamela Colman Smith. Bryan was rehearsing NETWORK for the National Theatre, had a film in the process of opening, was just finished launching his own book and was in the middle of getting off-book for his play. It was a lot to ask him to make an appearance.

There is something magical about fame when it is founded on talent, not notoriety. It is a lightening rod, a beam of light that makes for a common language. ‘Ah, yes, I know you because I saw your Hamlet/Walter White/Abraham Lincoln.’ In Pamela’s world, when she signed on to tour with Sir Henry Irving with the Lyceum Theatre, fame was very much a part of her world. It shined and it burned. Shined, in that Pamela found an exclusive club that let her in and included her in the artistic process. Burned, in that she was never given the possibilities to have her own artistic creations used in Lyceum productions. But in being party to the Lyceum Theatre, she experienced the business of show business, and as with her Green Sheaf publications, she threw herself into a myriad of ways to support herself with her art.

My rehearsed talk on Pamela was practiced at home with family and friends, trying to time it to twenty minutes. I tried not to get distracted by all the stories each aspect of Pamela’s life lends itself to: stories of other artwork, creations, creative types in her life. But the story of Pamela’s artwork in her tarot cards and the heightened abilities she was able to put into the symbols in her cards is something that I am passionate about. And I hoped the talk at Watkins would reflect that. From 5:30 onwards, the small space at Watkins filled up with folks that I knew and some I did not; by 6 pm the thirty chairs were occupied. I tried to greet those that I knew briefly, but tried to keep to myself so that I could concentrate on the talk. Etan Ilfeld, the owner of the store who was taping the talk, stood with me near the entrance and we chatted for a bit. Eventually, he asked as to whether Bryan would be able to attend or not, since it was 6 pm and he was not there. I suggested that we wait ten minutes and then go. A very long ten minutes later, I said we should start and Etan introduced me.

I had hoped I had enough to say about Pamela that standing on my own would be enough and that the speech without Bryan would not be a disappointment. I settled my brain down and told myself that I was there to talk about Pamela and let that carry me through. I think you can tell by the video clip posted below when Bryan entered the room about ten minutes into my talk, I was very pleased to see him there. As Blanche says, ‘Sometimes there is God so quickly.’ But, I was also excited about being able to talk about Pamela and draw a comparison between Henry Irving’s stature and reputation as an actor and Bryan’s reputation. I felt like his appearance at my talk was the universe letting me make a point about what is a ‘star’. Sir Henry Irving, the first actor to be knighted, turned the tide for actors in general to be seen as legitimate artists and not be considered cut-purses or degenerates. Bryan, an American actor starring in the lead in a show at the National Theatre in London, was certainly doing his part in bringing accreditation to actors. The gasps and round of applause when I introduced Bryan was a truly lovely experience. You can see the talk in an edited clip from Watkins Books youtube channel here:

After Bryan left and I continued the talk, the question and answer segment of the evening was fabulous. People knowledgeable and concerned about Pamela wanted to talk about her, whether it was about her name on the tarot deck or about Nora Lake, her late-in-life companion. It was fascinating to see other people’s interest in her life.

After the talk, I signed books, talked to friends and made new ones. The evening’s talk seemed to have vanished until after supper when I was walking back to the underground. We walked back past the now closed shop of Watkins Books. The display case with copies of Magician and Fool glowed in the half light and the feeling was that of pride, relief and just…joy. I think Pamela would be pleased and I hope that my series of books about Pamela’s tarot cards brings more people into her creative and whimsical world.