A Woman to Know: Annemarie Schwarzenbach
I can't always tell memories from dreams. — Annemarie
(self-portrait by Annemarie Schwarzenbach)
Talk about wanderlust.
In 1939, Swiss writer and photographer Annemarie piled into an ancient Ford cabriolet with her dear friend Ella. The two left war-torn Europe and traveled across rural Afghanistan into Kabul and Turkmenistan -- just as World War II erupted.
There, Annemarie became famous for her tortured love affairs with the daughter of the Turkish ambassador, a wealthy baroness, a famous archaelogist and even a young writer, the 23-year-old Carson McCullers. Annemarie traveled on from Turkmenistan to assignments in London, New York and the Belgian Congo -- but her life-long morphine addiction took her life at just 34 years old, at home in Switzerland.
"She had a face I knew would haunt me for the rest of my life," Carson wrote. Ain't that the truth, Carson. Ain't that the truth.
Add to your library list:
Lyric Novella (Annemarie Schwarzenbach)
All the Roads are Open (Annemarie Schwarzenbach)
Read more:
Annemarie Schwarzenbach's Impossible Journeys (The Village Voice)
Correspondence between Carson McCullers and Annemarie Schwarzenbach (Ram Publications)
Death in Persia (Bookslut)
Annemarie Schwarzenbach: A Life (The Swiss Institute)
See more:
Annemarie's Self-portraits of the world (Museo Berardo)
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