With its proximity to the cultural hub of New York City and its quieter suburban and rural landscapes, Connecticut was fertile ground for artists and writers in the period of Modernist movements between 1913 and 1979. Many of these cultural figures are well known through biographical and critical studies. Creative Places seeks to show how place played a significant role in creative work, and how in turn the artists and writers influenced communities in Connecticut.
Ilya Tolstoy
Theatre/Dance/Film, Journalism/Non-Fiction
1866 – 1933
- Biography/Description of Work
Son of Leo Tolstoy, Ilya first came to the United States in 1916 at the age of 50 on a lecture tour following the 1914 publication of his “Reminiscences of Tolstoy.” He returned to Russia for a short period in 1917, leaving again with the rise to power of the Bolsheviks. He returned to the US and remarried in 1920, moving to Waterbury. While he still wrote and lectured, he had to sell family treasures to help him purchase property in Southbury in 1923. There, in 1925, he and fellow Russian writer George Grebenstchikoff founded a Russian community; he said that the rolling hills reminded him of the Russian countryside. Tolstoy spent many months in California in 1926-27 as co-writer of the film script adaptation of his father’s novel “Resurrection” which starred Dolores del Rio, but returned to Connecticut.
- Sources view
- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ilya_Tolstoy, http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0866242/bio, http://www.sparklingbooks.com/reminiscences_of_tolstoy.html, http://www.cooperativeindividualism.org/borsodi-ralph_an-interview-with-count-ilya-tolstoy-1918.html Ilya Tolstoy Article - New York Times - 1917-2-12, Ilya Tolstoy Article - New York Times - 1928-9-9, Ilya Tolstoy Article - New York Times - 1933-12-11, Ilya Tolstoy Article - The Hartford Courant - 1918-3-6, Ilya Tolstoy Article - The Hartford Courant - 1920-2-2, Ilya Tolstoy Article - The Hartford Courant - 1920-4-28, Ilya Tolstoy Obituary - The Hartford Courant - 1933-12-13, Ilya Tolstoy Wedding Announcement - New York Times - 1920-9-15
- Associated Resource(s)