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Guide to the Mary Desti Collection on Isadora Duncan, 1901-1930
MS-P005
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Title: Mary Desti Collection on Isadora Duncan,
Date (inclusive): 1901-1930
Collection number: MS-P005
Collector:
Desti, Mary
Extent:
Number of containers: 2 boxes, 1 flat box
Linear feet: 1.25
Linear feet: 1.25
Repository:
University of California, Irvine. Library. Special Collections and Archives.
Irvine, California 92623-9557
Abstract: The Mary Desti Collection focuses on the dancer Isadora Duncan. Materials include
incoming correspondence from or relating to Duncan, photographs, ephemera, clippings,
programs, artifacts and a scrapbook of newspaper clippings. Mary Desti was Duncan's close
friend and biographer.
Language:
English.
Collection is open for research. Researchers must use microfilm or photocopies of fragile
restricted items in boxes 3 and 4.
Property rights reside with the University of California. Literary rights are retained by
the creators of the records and their heirs. For permissions to reproduce or to publish,
please contact the Head of Special Collections and University Archives.
Mary Desti Collection on Isadora Duncan. MS-P 5. Special Collections and Archives,
University of California, Irvine, The UCI Libraries.
Gift of Albert Dukow via Professor James Penrod in 1971 or 1972.
Preliminary processing by Special Collections staff; completed by Laura Clark Brown in
1997.
Mary Desti (1871-1931) left Chicago for Paris in 1901 with her year-old son Preston
Sturges. In Paris, she met and befriended dancer and choreographer Isadora Duncan. Desti
undertook various enterprises in Europe, including a cosmetic business. She frequently
accompanied Duncan in her travels, and occasionally Duncan lived with her. Duncan was
staying with Desti in Nice at the time of her sudden death in an automobile accident on
September 14, 1927.
Following Duncan's death, Desti, a casual writer of both fiction and non-fiction, wrote a
Duncan biography,
The Untold Story: The Life of Isadora Duncan (New York:
Liveright, 1929). Isadora Duncan's autobiography
My Life (New York:
Liveright, 1927) recorded events through 1921, prior to the period when she opened a
dance school in Moscow. Desti intended to tell the rest of the story.
The Mary Desti Collection focuses on the dancer Isadora Duncan. Materials include
in-coming correspondence from or relating to Duncan, photographs, ephemera, clippings,
programs, artifacts and a scrapbook of newspaper clippings. Mary Desti was Duncan's close
friend and biographer. Although the majority of correspondence was received by Desti, the
collection does not comprise her personal papers.
Materials are organized in three series: correspondence, printed items, and other
materials. The internal arrangement within series is based on format, such as clippings
and programs, and chronology. Dates are provided in the container list, when known.
The following terms have been used to index the description of this collection in
the library's online public access catalog.
Duncan, Isadora, 1877-1927--Archival resources.
Dance--Archival resources.
Modern dance--Archival resources.
Dance programs.
Photographic prints.
Artifacts.
Choreographers.
Dancers.
Index Terms Related to this Collection
Dukow, Albert, former owner.
Online Archive of California.