Christa's Museum

Full name: Christa Kate Winsloe (own preferred short form of first name since 40's is Chris (or full masculine version, Christian) which was found by people who read Chris' letters to Dorothy Thompson.)

WHO? A high-class pencil artist, a high-class sculptor (second reason of fame), a French resistance member (~ "completed all assignments"), leftist communist, into women, animal lover, wonderful amateur actress (lead role in a play at the boarding school Kaiserin-Augusta Seminary), writer (including humorous mini stories i.e. feuilletones) & playwright: famous for (main reason of fame) Mädchen in Uniform (the book Das Mädchen Manuela (literally The Girl Manuela, known in print as The Child Manuela) . . .

A fact: the film Loving Annabelle is based on Mädchen in Uniform.

A knowledgeable fan can share a lot about this wonderful woman who was a real Manuela but with light skin, father's 9 of 12 siblings were born in Scotland instead of they had "Spanish grandmother"), and who predicted so called 10th of June (not the date, of course) as Manuela's number at school in the book was 55 and 23.12.1888–10.06.1944 is 55. 

Every post, an article (any site), anything related (eBay, (stock) photo sites etc.) means deine legacy and memory about dich lives on and on. Fanfictions and fan art related to anything du wrote are very important too to keep figurative fire burning bright. (One user on Tumblr commented on a poll ~ "as long as I'm in, the fandom exists" (about self as the only one member.) Sad almost complete Chris-related truth if say about text form (but random fans write something once in a blue moon, though.)

Personally, all our many similarities are like an incredible chance to be close to such smart (Art, German, languages (De, Fr, En, It, Hu), Natural History (Science?)), witty & talented woman. And to have Chris as a guide in some of decision making (but using logic mostly) is to be strong when needed. Meine HERO Chris.

The most suitable photo for such day (from Auto-Biographie und andere Feuilletones edited by Doris Hermanns.) My comment: as understandable, the photograph was taken some time after Dorothy Thompson's jealous husband sent Chris to his farm in Vermont? to live with his ex-wife.





Liebling Chris, wir (deine Fans) lieben dich. Ich liebe dich für immer.

Mood: both grateful and sad, but this entry is not so sad.

THE FIRST PHOTO.

Probably, the tinted photo was seen first time (by the post's poster) thanks to a post on Tumblr, and then digging led to Wikipedia article.

A 20-year-old lass\woman (then) sees the photo: *love at first sight*  | the same person, 10.5+ years later (now): *so many similarities with meine liebe hero Chris* || Gestern und Heute :D

2 months (or so) later, full unedited version had been found (black and white, but it was dark, as far as memory serves, so it was edited.)

 

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THE SECOND PHOTO.



(Yes, a tiny photo with unrealistically high contrast (it can be excused if for better visibility), but it was and IS treasure, nonetheless (despite many other photos.)

Most likely, full version without cropping is the one that is very important for the poster of this post (cut of version has been used somewhere as a userpic for years.)

 

Two or nearly 2.5 years ago, a clean version of the photo had been found accidentally.

 

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MORE.

About two weeks later (compared with the day of posting the top picture), the post's poster had found what turned out to be a passport photo (so, it had already been three photos :) ) And, for years, it had been the only example of Chris' handwriting. (Hallo, Ralph Winsloe (Chris' older brother, 2nd of 3 children) with similar hard-to-read handwriting. It's known from Das Mädchen Manuela (The Child Manuela) only, no examples.)

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WHY THE POST.

Looking here and there at photos of or related to Chris, reminded of the information above.


E D I T: Doris Hermanns' article about Christa Winsloe on FemBio was created before 2012, most likely, and she added a few photos, and actually, whichever site had the passport photo, FemBio has it too (so it's from there originally, or a copy of the same photo.) In a few other photos Chris isn't visible well as she's far and the photos are small.

Excerpts (very short & not much, in a looong article) from Christa Winsloe's novel Life Begins ((semi?)autobiographical, but changed names, I.e. Christa Kate is Eva-Maria) . . . make "readers" know that Chris "Eva-Maria" was impressed by life full of chastity of Franciscan monks (an example of a young one) and wanted to life similarly. (As we know, she failed/stopped to want it later.) 

 

The full piece (not a quote, but the author's opinion based on facts) is bigger, but here's only all that is needed. 

          Fra Matteo, bound by his vows of chastity . . . hinting at a connection between celibacy and creativity, and perhaps at the potential destructive side of female sexuality. Soon Eva decides that she should model her life on that of the Franciscan monks and sacrifice "worldly pleasures" for the sake of her art . . . 

Source: New Women — New Artists? Femininity and Art in Christa Winsloe’s Life Begins by Kerstin Fest 

Just imagine, lesbian Sister (or nun = the latter spend most of the time praying as I read, so the first is better) falls in love with Christa Kate. And NOT just ANY nun, but exactly somebody named Julia (Madre Superiora in Entre tinieblas, 1983 (Dark Habits). I don't think highly emotional Chris could resist such huge love.

 

Reaction:

 

(EDITED, twice older than needed, but fits as the idea \\ Chris here is 45 years old, 1933–1934, but not late December 1934 100%)

The idea about CW in love with this very Sister is from several days ago.

 

(Full ENTRY/POST)

Next Valentine's Day . . .

 

Note: mod happy is happy for Armgard/Marga.