Leslie Snow
Hardcover: 220 pages
Publisher: Peter E. Randall Publisher (March 18, 2014)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 1931807787
BOOK BLURB: This is a story of a man and a woman with vastly different backgrounds who overcame obstacles and created art and living experience. Leslie Snow was a dancer, painter, and poet; Louis Féron was a goldsmith, jeweler, and sculptor. A Voyage Remembered chronicles the fascinating lives of these two distinguished artists, their international journeys, their connections with famed artists, individuals, and patrons, and their thirty-six years of marriage. Louis and Leslie believed the mind and feeling must be united to be free, and to be free is the greatest quality that exists.
Printed on rich paper that is a delight to touch, A Voyage Remembered is one of those books one would keep handy on a coffee table to peruse now and then. It has two sections of pictures - one in color the other black and white - of the art created by Feron who was an amazing sculptor and goldsmith, and I have gone back several times to enjoy them again. The story of the relationship between these two creatively gifted people is is filled with interesting bits of history that shaped the artists they became. For instance, Feron did not have a formal education due to a childhood of poverty, and during World War I he developed his strong work ethic, perhaps because war made him more aware of his mortality.
The book opens with a short memoir of Leslie's early life as she recounts her first introduction to the magic of dance. It is very factual, and a bit more of an emotional response to the situations in her life would have made this more engaging. I did enjoy the poems that she wrote and there the reader does get a sense of what she has felt, especially over the loss of Feron. Her "Song to Louis" recounts in verse how they met and fell in love, and "Passage" touches on her grief. It begins, "My loss remains a desert of shifting sands..."
ABOUT THE AUTHOR:
Leslie Snow grew up in South Orange, New Jersey and spent the years 1950–1963 performing with the Martha Graham Dance Company, the Charles Weidman Dance Company, and the Mime Theater of Étienne Decroux. She has published two other books, Leslie Snow Paintings and Drawings and Poems of Leslie Snow. She currently resides in New Hampshire. LOUIS FÉRON (1901–1998) was a world-class goldsmith, jeweler, and sculptor, trained in Paris as gold and silversmith winning the title “Meilleur Ouvrier de France” in 1933.
