The Convert: Lidia Zamenhof and the Bahai Faith
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- LeeM1023
- David_Poulson
- David_Poulson
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» LeeM1023 - Lidia Zamenhof
David,Thanks for the 3-part series on Lidia. I would definitely encourage anyone to get the biography by Wendy Heller. It's now out of print, I believe, but there are copies around. Even though it focuses on Lidia's life, work and beliefs, it does a better job than almost anything else I'm aware of giving an inside look into the Zamenhof family and the dynamics surrounding the development of the language and the movement. It also gives glimpses of other Esperantists as real people, with details about them that you just won't find elsewhere. Reading this book and Boulton's "Zamenhof: Auxtoro de Esperanto" will provide a very complete picture.
As an American Esperantist, the most tragic aspect of the story is Lidia's presence in the US prior to WW II, and her forced return to Poland in spite of vigorous pleading by her friends and supporters that she be allowed to stay. What a terrible turn of events, with a predictable fatal outcome.
She did an amazing amount of work for Esperanto here in the US, traveling and teaching in many large cities. One has to wonder how the movement might have been different if she had been allowed to stay. I also wonder if there are still people around who were influenced by her teaching, either directly or indirectly.
To digress a bit, that aspect of Esperanto history is awfully difficult to track down. When the US Kongreso was held in St. Louis last year, we tried to find the tracks of the earlier Esperanto movement in that city. (We know there was an earlier movement, because the Kongreso had been held there in 1959 and 1967). We had a few documents and a few names, but turned up absolutely nothing. We also heard that at the St. Louis "World's Fair" of 1904, the first large-scale publicity for Esperanto in the US took place (E. Privat documents this in his "Historio de la Lingvo Esperanto", just as a passing reference). I combed through the World's Fair documents in the State Historical Society, and couldn't find any information or corroboration. Sigh.
I'm glad current documentation is electronic. Thirty years from now when someone wonders "What were the Esperantists in St. Louis doing in 2000" they can do a web search and at least turn up some reports and notes.
Well, enough for now. Thanks for your continued work and the wonderful information you're providing about Esperanto.
Lee Miller
Columbia, Missouri
Usono
-- posted by LeeM1023
» David_Poulson - Lidia The Teacher
Yes, Lee, the aftermath of Lidia's trip to the USA was tragic.I'll have to return this theme and consider the very important contribution Lidia made in her role as a teacher when I come to write about some other outstanding Esperanto teachers and new language-teaching methods.
I am always delighted and grateful to read the additional information provided in the Discussion Forum for this Topic. It's really great to see the scope of my own brief articles expanded in this way.
-- posted by David_Poulson
» David_Poulson - An important link.
This URLhttp://www.bahai.de/bahaaeligo/fama.html...
will show you one of the very few photographs in which Lidia appears as a reasonably attractive young lady. She just wasn't very photogenic!
The link will also lead you to useful snippets of information about other notable Bahai Esperantists. I should probably have included it in the main text of the Topic article but, at times, I find it difficult to remain within my stipulated limit of 1,000 words.
-- posted by David_Poulson
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