Memoirs of an
American Prima Donna
By
Clara Louise Kellogg
(Mme. Strakosch)
With 40 Illustrations
G. P. Putnam's Sons
New York and London
The Knickerbocker Press
1913
COPYRIGHT, 1913
BY
CLARA LOUISE KELLOGG STRAKOSCH
The Knickerbocker Press New York
WITH AFFECTION AND DEEPEST APPRECIATION OF HER WORTH
AS BOTH A RARE WOMAN AND A RARER FRIEND
I INSCRIBE THIS RECORD OF MY
PUBLIC LIFE TO
JEANNETTE L. GILDER
FOREWORD
THE name of Clara Louise Kellogg is known to the immediate generationchiefly as an echo of the past. Yet only thirty years ago it was writtenof her, enthusiastically but truthfully, that "no living singer needs abiography less than Miss Clara Louise Kellogg; and nowhere in the worldwould a biography of her be so superfluous as in America, where her nameis a household word and her illustrious career is familiar in all itstriumphant details to the whole people."
The past to which she belongs is therefore recent; it is the past ofyesterday only, thought of tenderly by our fathers and mothers, spokenof reverently as a poignant phase of their own ephemeral youth, one oftheir sweet lavender memories. The pity is (although this is itself partof the evanescent charm), that the singer's best creations can live butin the hearts of a people, and the fame of sound is as fugitive as lifeitself.
A record of such creations is, however, possible and also enduring;while it is also necessary for a just estimate of the development ofcivilisations. As such, this record of her musical past—presented byClara Louise Kellogg herself—will have a place in the annals of theevolution of musical art on the North American continent long afterevery vestige of fluttering personal reminiscence has vanished down theages. A word of appreciation with regard to the preparation of thisrecord is due to John Jay Whitehead, Jr., whose diligent chronologicallabours have materially assisted the editor.
Clara Louise Kellogg came from New England stock of English heritage.She was named after Clara Novello. Her father, George Kellogg, was aninventor of various machines and instruments and, at the time of herbirth, was principal of Sumter Academy, Sumterville, S. C. Thus thefamous singer was acclaimed in later years not only as the Star of theNorth (the rôle of Catherine in Meyerbeer's opera of that name beingone of her achievements) but also as "the lone star of the South in theoperatic world." She first sang publicly in New York in 1861 at anevening party given by Mr. Edward Cooper, the brother of Mrs. AbramHewitt. This was the year of her ...