30 Hyde Avenue Mr. Fred I. Archibald Dear Mr. Archibald: It was so nice hearing from you again, and I am very flattered by your insistence that I come to Maryland. I am only sorry that I cannot respond with an immediate "Yes!"—but I shall be in England at the time. I am going in for a really extensive tour whilst I am there—45 lectures, in fact, before December. I shall be at home for Christmas, and I would be awfully glad if you could arrange something for next year. You will be amused to know that I am coming back again on the Queen Mary; but I doubt that I shall again meet as congenial company as you and Mrs. Archibald were. I take this occasion to ask your advise. I thought whilst I was in England it would be interesting to keep a record of my contacts and impressions, with the thought of sending them back to Mrs. MacLeod, who would work them into articles—either in straight or letter form. (Marion MacLeod has been working with me on my writings for the last two years, and I trust her judgment as to the form of the finished article.) Do you think such articles would be of interest and could we Syndicate them? I think that the local newspapers would take them; the Boston Globe published a Lenten article of mine at Easter; and the Herald has just published an interview (I'm enclosing a copy for you). The warmest greetings to both you and Mrs. Archibald and hoping that our roads may soon pass again. Sincerely,
Princess of Romania |
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PRINCESS PAINTS—Princess Ileana of Romania likes to paint ikons and says she took it up because it is becoming a lost art. |
By Fred Brady A royal princess of the House of Hohenzollern-Sigmaringen has decided to go to England and Ireland as a kind of unpaid salesman for a product she loves—“the real side of America.” Her Royal Highness Ileana, princess of Romania, second cousin once-removed to Elizabeth II of England, forthright foe of communism, author, lecturer—housewife and good neighbor at 30 Hyde Ave., Newton—wants to lecture on Americans as good neighbors. “I want to show the real side of America,” she smiled the other day, “the good neighbors, the lives of men like professors and clergymen—the real intellectuals of this country.” A slim, vital woman, Princess Ileana leaned forward with such enthusiasm that it swung her drop earrings and said: “Nobody over there realizes the intellectual side and the spiritual side of Americans. And Americans don’t bring their best out in front of other peoples. I’m sure they’re not as materialistic as they pretend to be. “And, you know, I think they’ll listen to me, since I am a foreigner.” NOT UNCOMMON Suddenly she laughed, a not uncommon thing with her, and went on: “After all, I’m not sponsored by anybody. I’m not being paid to say anything about America. I just want to say it.” She leaves in September for 45 lectures in England and Ireland and the color of America which she will paint will come out of her seven years in Newton and her many visits on lecture tours to other parts of the country. The Romanian princess and her six children came here in 1950 after leaving her homeland in 1948 when her nephew, former King Michael, abdicated in the face of Communist threats. She is now married, for the second time, to a Romanian pathologist who survived communist concentration camps in World War II, Dr. Stefan Issarescu. Dr. Issarescu is currently associated at the Deaconess Hospital with the Navy expert in atomic medicine, Dr. Shields Warren. DOES OWN COOKING When Princess Ileana says she is a Newton housewife, she isn’t being coy. “I do all my own cooking,” she smiled. And the royal household staff in Newton consists of a lady who comes in once or twice during the week and a man who helps in the garden. Even the most die-hard democrat would have to concede that this royal daughter is a very far cry from the idle aristocrat. When she isn’t cooking, she’s writing or lecturing or painting ikons or doing more research in theology. In addition to two books, “I Live Again” and “Hospital of the Queen’s Heart,” she has done two religious works, “My Inner Faith” and “The Spirit of Orthodoxy,” and next year her publisher will bring out a work on “The Nicene Creed.” PRIVATE CHAPEL In the basement of the comfortable old frame house at 30 Hyde Ave., she has her own chapel hung with two old ikons which were treasures of her mother, Queen Marie of Romania. In her second floor study is a handsome ship model, a silver sloop, and when I asked about it she smiled: “When I was a girl I had a passion for sailing and navigation.” Friends teased her by saying that she wasn’t serious about sailing. So the princess took the examinations with the young merchant marine officers of the Royal Naval School and passed with the grade of captain. The silver sloop was given her by a man who was later killed by Communists. Princess Ileana has some royal feelings about her Newton neighbors. “They were so sweet from the moment we came. I was still unpacking when one came over to take the children to the beach.” RECENT GRADUATE The children have grown up since the family came here and the other day the door was opened by Maria Magdalena, an archduchess of Austria, who has just been graduated from a convent school in Kansas City, Mo. She’s looking forward to the lecture trip this fall because it means she’s going to the Sorbonne in Paris to study French literature and art. But it’s the lectures themselves which the Princess Ileana is looking forward to, as she explained: “I came here as a refugee, but one must stop being a refugee and start a new life. I don’t mean to betray the past but to recognize that it is past. I think Michael said it so well in Life magazine when he said: ‘You can’t live on being an ex-king.’ “He’s a wonderful example. He is not playing the refugee.” LONG MOMENT The princess thought for a long moment and then went on: "‘I love America. The American people have been good to me. America has fulfilled so many things.” Her lectures ought to be worth hearing. Because, and as she added this she set her earrings swinging again: “I can get quite riled on this subject.” And there is a royal American word—riled. |