Stark, Freya

Young years, family, education

Freya Madelyn Stark was born on January 31, 1893 in Paris , France ^[1] . In the family of Robert Stark (1853-1931) and his wife Flora, Madeleine (1861-1942) was the eldest daughter ^[2] . Her parents were cousins ​​to each other and were representatives of the bohemian environment ^{[3] [4]} : Robert was a sculptor , and Flora was a pianist and artist ^[5] . Freya was born in the Stark studio on ^[2] , two months ahead of schedule ^[6] . From her father's side, she was English , and from her mother's side, she was Italian of German - Polish descent ^[7] . Subsequently, , the granddaughter of Elizabeth Cady Stanton and cousin Freya Stark, wrote in her memoirs that Freya was the daughter of a certain Obadia Dyer, a young man from a famous family from New Orleans ^[8] .

Throughout her life, Freya was engaged in self-education and was essentially self-taught ^{[3] [5]} . Apart from the society of French nuns ^[9] , she did not receive a formal education as such, but often moved from place to place with her parents, thus learning French , German and Italian , in which she fluently spoke ^{[1] [10]} (subsequently also studied Latin ) ^[6] . She grew up in an artistic and literary environment, in connection with which, according to biographers, she had a natural sense of style, was a "style aristocrat" ^{[10] [11]} . It was read by the British ^[3] - Keats , Wordsworth , Shelley and Byron ^[12] . On her ninth birthday she received the book “ A Thousand and One Nights ” ^[7] as a gift, was fond of Kipling's stories and “ ” translated by Fitzgerald ^[12] . Perhaps due to this, later became interested in exotic lands ^[3] .

The marriage of the Stark couple lasted only 13 years ^[6] . After living for several years in the Devonian , Robert and Flora broke up. Mother took Freya and her younger sister Vera to the Italy - they first settled in Dronero , and then in Asolo , near Venice ^{[3] [13]} . Robert stayed in Devon and went in for gardening, marrying Flora's younger sister, who gave birth to six children and died after a miscarriage ^{[13] [6]} . Flora herself, being a strong and domineering woman, started an affair with 23-year-old Italian Count Mario Li Roasho. With his help, she became an entrepreneur and engaged in the production of carpets , but the family constantly lacked money ^{[9] [13] [14] [15]} . Freya later noted that she inherited a sense of honesty from her father, and resilience from her mother ^[6] . At the age of 12, an accident happened at Freya’s mother’s factory in Genoa : long hair was pulled into the shaft of a loom , tearing off her ear and part of her scalp; Freya spent four months in the hospital. The “memory” of this incident left scars on Freya’s head, which gave birth to her love for all kinds of hats and scarves for the rest of her life ^{[9] [10] [13] [14] [15]} . According to Stark biographers, the existence of a mother with a somewhat dubious reputation with her bohemian lifestyle, constant anxiety about money, and deep emotional insecurity created Freya's desire for self-improvement, to search for a goal or even mission for her whole life ^{[16] [17 ] [17 ] ]} .

World War I and later

Freya wanted to study in , but her father paid for his studies only in England ^[9] . In 1908 she moved to London , where she attended the lectures of W.P. Keur on English literature at the University of London ^[15] . Ker, who later became a professor of poetry at Oxford , was her godfather ^{[18] [19]} . He insisted that Freya learn Icelandic for reading the sagas in the original ^{[20] [9] [21]} . In 1912, Stark entered at the University of London, where she wanted to earn a degree in history ^{[1] [3] [10]} . At that time, it revolved in the society of journalists and writers, met with G. D. Wells and WB Yeats ^[22] . Together with Ker, she was actively involved in mountaineering and in 1913 she visited Gran Paradiso south of Mont Blanc ^{[18] [19]} . After the outbreak of World War I in 1914, she interrupted her studies and, as a went to the Italian front ^{[1] [10]} . For some time she worked in a small hospital - clinic of Saint Ursula in Bologna , where she met and fell in love with a young Italian doctor, Guido Ruato, whom she wanted to marry, but he returned to his former mistress, who had come to him from America ^{[15] [23] [ 24]} . Then she served under the leadership of George Trevelyan in the department of the at the ^[25] . On October 24, 1917, the Austrians broke through the front at Caporetto , after which Freya's medical detachment was involved in a hasty retreat of Italian troops near Gorizia , near Trieste , which turned into a bloody and stampede ^{[26] [10] [27]} . I met the end of the war in Dronero, together with my family ^[26] .

In the post-war period, Stark was engaged in for some time ^[3] . At the age of 22, she suffered from typhoid fever , pleurisy, and pneumonia , and then also a stomach ulcer ^[6] . In 1919, along with Ker, she visited the Italian side of the Alps : rising from Courmayeur , they passed through the passes of Monte Rosa , reaching Makunyaga and . In 1923, Stark and Ker returned to Makunyaga, but while climbing Ker died suddenly from a cardiac arrest ; he was buried in the old church of Makunyagi under the eastern slope of Monte Rosa. In 1924, Stark, accompanied by a guide , nevertheless conquered Monte Rosa, becoming the second woman to climb this gigantic wall of ice and snow 10 thousand feet high ^{[18] [19]} . The first was Briton , who conquered the Matterhorn peak in 1871, which is part of the Monte Rosa system ^{[28] [29]} . Stark subsequently wrote that Monte Rosa was “the only truly significant climb in my life” ^[19] .

Around 1921 ^[15] , in an attempt to break away from the horrors of war ^[13] , or after reading newspaper stories about the exploits of Lawrence of Arabia ^[9] , Freya began to take private Arabic lessons ^[10] , including from a Capuchin monk who studied breeding Angora rabbits in San Remo ^[30] . Returning to London, she studied with an Egyptian teacher ^[15] , and then entered the and mastered the language ^{[1] [3] [10]} . At that time, Freya also began to study the Qur'an ^{[14] [15]} , which helped her in the future when communicating with Muslims ^[31] . To further learn the language, as well as in an attempt to escape from a seizing life and an imperious mother who wanted to marry her daughter, Freya decided to go to the Middle East , namely to Lebanon and Syria ^{[3] [10] [16]} . To take everything into their own hands and not allow other people to decide their fate, Freya was spurred by the fate of her sister Vera: a good and obedient daughter, at 18 she married an Italian count, gave birth to four children and died in 1926 at the age of 33 from a miscarriage ^[9] . Subsequently, Freya considered the death of her sister, along with her failed marriage, to be the two main losses of her life ^[15] . Nevertheless, she remained close with her relatives - she regularly wrote to her mother in writing a week, until her death in 1942 ^[32] . In 1930, Stark visited her father, who emigrated to Canada ^{[16] [33]} , where he was engaged in growing apples ^[34] .

East

In 1927, at the age of 34, Freya sailed to Beirut on the Lloyd Triestino , subsequently writing that this is how “my wanderings in the East began”, and, in general, my creative life ^{[30] [15]} . Despite the cold and rain, Stark was fascinated by Beirut and enjoyed walking along the city streets ^[9] , not limited to areas popular with European tourists ^[15] . During the first November trip to Lebanon, Freya abandoned the usual walking tours and chose to eat, live and travel as locals ^[3] . In this, she differed from her distinguished predecessor Gertrude Bell , who ate alone in her tent ^[35] (she died two years before Stark arrived in the East) ^[24] . Possessing instinctive cordiality in combination with knowledge of many languages, Stark directly interacted with people of various classes and different backgrounds, while she managed to avoid neglect, arrogance and stereotypes, which were sometimes encountered in the field of European oriental studies ^{[10] [35]} . She wore an Arabic dress and stayed with Bedouin sheikhs ^[24] , rode camels and donkeys ^[9] , often wandered alone and traveled to dangerous places, thus developing her own set of rules for survival ^[4] . Stark possessed a small build and unusual constitution, unusual for travelers, but at the same time she had a strong will and endurance ^{[3] [6]} . Nevertheless, she suffered from dysentery , malaria , dengue fever , a kind of "occupational disease" travelers ^{[9] [11] [6]} . Many of Stark's trips were made to remote and inaccessible areas, where not only women, but also European travelers ^{[1] [9] [36]} did not visit her. Despite the fears of her British comrades, she realized that this was the only way to genuine knowledge of both the Middle East and the peoples inhabiting it ^{[6] [3]} . With a sense of Victorian dignity, she disposed all her companions to herself: during the day, Stark talked with men, and spent nights in harems in female society ^{[9] [30]} . However, she was not a feminist , although at one time even Bell was in the , one of the meetings of which, along with Mary Ward, also attended Stark ^{[37] [9] [24]} . Subsequently, in her works, she included arguments derived from conversations with a large number of women from Muslim countries, with whom she, unlike most male travelers, could communicate directly in the harem ^[10] . Initially, she wrote only letters and sent them to an ever-growing circle of friends, which, in particular, included Field Marshal Wavell , , Sir , Bernard Berenson ^{[14] [30] [17]} .

In April 1928, Stark visited Damascus , practiced Arabic for three months in the Syrian village of near the Lebanese mountains near Beirut, but returned to Europe seven months after the start of the trip due to an illness that began due to unsanitary conditions ^[38] . In May 1929, she again arrived in Lebanon, accompanied by her friend Venetia Baddick. Without permission from the French authorities, they rode on donkeys to Jabal al-Druz south of Damascus , which was under martial law after the uprising ^{[3] [9] [10] [39]} . In the end, the travelers were still detained, but they were justified, saying that they were lost due to the guides of Thomas Cook . After that, they spent three days in the company of French officers, which were filled with horseback riding, holiday dinners and visits to local villages, as well as military stories about the benefits of civilization that they bring to these barbaric lands ^[9] . In the autumn of that year, Freya made her way to Baghdad , where she lived in the family of a shoemaker, who lived in a quarter half-inhabited by prostitutes ^{[39] [3] [24]} . In the period 1929-1931 she actively traveled to Persia (now Iran ), where she began to study the Persian language ^{[3] [10]} . In April 1930 — October 1931, she visited the and Alamut in the mountains of Elburs , and then passed through Qom , Isfahan and Save to Lurestan , near the , where she witnessed the search “ , but did not take part in specific excavations , although she was an amateur archaeologist ^{[10] [40] [39] [21]} . In that year, she wanted to climb Takht-e Soleiman , the , but was deceived and taken the wrong way by her chicari guide , who was bribed by a rival Hungarian climber ^{[18] [19] [21]} . Not being the first European to reach Alamut, Stark nevertheless became the first person to describe this main Assassin fortress in more detail ^[16] . Returning to Baghdad, she began to perfect her writing skills and joined the English-language newspaper Baghdad Times, where she became Assistant Editor-in-Chief Duncan Cameron. During his time at the editorial office, Stark published a number of art articles that became the basis for his first book, published in 1932, entitled Baghdad Sketches. The publication included descriptions of the Shiite shrine cities of Najaf and Karbala , which are not often accessible to European and American tourists ^{[3] [10] [41] [31]} . At the same time, Stark's story about traveling to friends was published in Cornhill Magazine and attracted the attention of prominent British publisher , who subsequently published most of her books ^{[10] [31]} .

In 1930, during his stay in Baghdad, the attention of Stark was attracted by the tall and courageous captain Vivian Holt , Secretary of Oriental Affairs at the British Embassy ^[42] . Freya expected Vivian to reciprocate, but he rejected her declaration of love ^{[43] [44]} . According to rumors that circulated in diplomatic circles, but did not find actual evidence, Holt may have been homosexual ^[43] , but they remained friends with Stark and continued to correspond until his death in 1960 ^[3] . Living in Baghdad, Freya gathered a circle of English around herself, mainly homosexuals, who were also attracted to bisexuality ^[45] . According to Stark biographers, she knew how to make friends and always preferred the company of men ^[30] , having spent her whole life in romantic adventures and devoting herself to those people who could, but did not want, or could not love her at all ^[14] . According to biographers, Stark wanted to see a woman who had sexuality in her, met various beautiful diplomats and officers, but none of these hobbies turned into a real passion ^[34] . In this, Stark looked like Gertrude Bell : both went through love disappointments, losses, indifference and betrayal, but at the same time enjoyed a fairly close friendship with men ^[24] .

In 1933, Freya came to Italy through Amman , Petra and Jerusalem , and then returned to London, where she was awaiting public recognition for her trip to Luristan ^{[10] [31]} . In the same year, the Royal Geographical Society awarded Stark a Buck ^[46] , making her the third woman to receive this award in the history of her existence ^[14] . In 1934, Stark received the Burton Memorial Medal from the Royal Asiatic Society ^[47] , becoming the first woman to receive this award ^[30] . In 1935, the awarded her the Mungo Park ^[48] . In the same year, Stark became an honorary member of the ^[19] . The result of her travels in Persia was the book "Valley of the Assassins" (1934) ^[3] , which Stark dedicated to W.P. Keru ^[31] . In this first truly major work, Freya, according to critics, discovered a special, very personal style of storytelling, combining practical tips for travelers with interesting comments about history, people, culture, customs and everyday life in those places in which she visited ^[1] . At the same time, she managed to describe the inhabitants of West Asia as they were in reality, which rarely happened to even more erudite and educated writers, including, for example, Richard Burton or Gertrude Bell ^[10] . Stark and Bell generally had much in common: they traveled to distant places, wrote about their experiences in critically acclaimed books, were talented linguists, experienced photographers, courageous climbers, both had a strong character and acted in their own way ^[24] (the first representative such a type was Esther Stanhope , who went on a trip to Turkey back in 1810) ^[21] . In the year of their appearance, “Assassin's Valley” was very successful and was reprinted three times, taking its place in the canon of British travel literature and ensuring Stark's wide popularity ^{[3] [10]} . Critics of her works were unanimous in what Stark wrote with sincerity and humor, being an unsurpassed traveler thanks to fearlessness, frankness, charm, idealism and some naivety ^[5] . A performance on BBC Radio ^[17] , as well as informative lectures interspersed with aphorisms given at receptions in various societies, further strengthened Stark's popularity, making the desire to approach her a dream of every journalist ^[16] , and she became a target for rumors and speculation ^[33] .

Arabia

Stark was one of the first researchers of non-Arab descent to visit the southern Arabian deserts ^[49] . In late 1934 — early 1935, she made her first trip to Arabia and managed to visit the Hadramaut region in the British Protectorate of South Arabia (now - Yemen ). The expedition ended quite quickly: after contracting measles from one child in a harem, Stark was evacuated by British aviation to the nearest hospital in Aden after a relapse of the disease ^{[3] [9] [10] [17]} . She dreamed of seeing Shabwah , which she had to ride a camel for seven days, but the honor of opening this city went to the Arabist Harry St. John Philby the following year ^{[9] [16] [17]} . Nevertheless, Stark was able to visit such ancient Yemeni cities as Mukalla , Shibam , Sayvun , Tarim ^[50] . Another expedition to Hadramaut, undertaken in 1937-1938 with the archaeologist Gertrude Caton-Thompson , was also somewhat unsuccessful and also due to a serious illness, however, excavations yielded good results ^{[3] [10] [14] [51]} .

Stark later donated some of the artifacts found in Arabia to the British Museum ^[52] . Thanks to this, the scientific community learned about the existence of coins of the ancient Hadramaut kingdom ^[53] , found by Stark in the area between Shikhr and Tarim ^[54] . Apart from the missing or broken pieces ^[55] , the coins were rather roughly cast from bronze in a series of molds , as evidenced by the traces left around the circumference ^[54] . On the obverse there is a male head depicted in profile with long ringlets ^[55] , to the right of which is read the sign m of indefinite value, and from the top to bottom, three characters of the Sabei alphabet named after Sin ^[56] , the lunar deity of pre-Islamic Arabia , who was worshiped among the due to the hot climate, cooling only at night ^[54] . On the reverse, a bird of prey with spread wings (an eagle or a kite ) and three letters of the Sabei alphabet to the right and to the left of it are visible ^{[55] [56]} . These specimens, together with several dozens of later found coins, are the only known examples of bronze coinage from South Arabia ^[57] , on which the image of the lunar deity also appeared for the first time in this region ^[55] .

Despite all the difficulties, the impressions received were enough for Stark to publish three books in 1936-1940 - The South Gate of Arabia, In Hadramaut and Winter in Arabia, the first of which she devoted to British aviators ^{[58] [3]} . The last book, written in the form of a diary, became one of her largest works and earned praise from critics for her vision of Arab culture ^[51] . At the same time, British officials were outraged by Stark's travels to remote and uninhabited regions without permission from the ; the Sir expressed his skepticism about her trips, although he noted in the introduction to Stark’s book that “she showed us the same qualities that she showed to the Arabs, soon earning herself a privileged position " ^[51] . Being a prolific writer, Stark turned out to be a skilled photographer, who managed to capture Iran, Iraq, the Persian Gulf and South Arabia as they were before the war and modernization ^[10] . Not being known for any major discoveries ^[9] , Stark earned a good reputation in academia thanks to her geographical findings and cartographic works ^[59] , despite the fact that her research works were criticized by contemporaries, in particular Wilfried Tesyger and Vladimir Ivanov ^{[10 ]} . In 1942, Stark received the Founders Gold Medal from the Royal Geographical Society "for travels in the East and their description" ^{[60] [61]} .

World War II

On the eve of World War II in 1939, Stark traveled to Europe, and then made a short trip to the East, during which she visited the ^[62] At the same time, Freya failed to get married for the second time - the young officer Donald Lennox Boyd, whom she called in letters “My dear Valentine, ” died in Germany during a secret intelligence mission ^{[24] [20] [45]} . Subsequently, his nephew, , categorically denied Donald's relationship with Freya, claiming that his uncle was homosexual and was captured by the Nazis in a gay bar ^{[20] [45]} : he was arrested with his brother George in Stuttgart and died in prison, while his brother was soon released ^{[63] [64]} .

After the outbreak of the war, Stark, at the request of the British government, joined the as a diplomat-propagandist with experience in the Arab world and with enthusiasm for the British Empire ^{[1] [3] [10] [30]} . She worked in Aden , Sana'a , Baghdad and Cairo ^{[1] [3] [10]} . Collaborated with ^[4] . She worked with the population to prevent the spread of propaganda by the Axis countries , which on the eve of Italy's entry into the war posed threats to British rule in the Middle East ^{[1] [3] [10]} . She prepared news reports and translated them into Arabic, organized broadcasts of British propaganda films, talked with local residents from all social strata, inspiring them with confidence that they should not give up ahead of time, since Great Britain would definitely win the war ^{[9] [65]} . During the battle of El Alamein ^[66] , Stark helped found “Brotherhood of Liberty, "an anti-Nazi democratic organization sponsored by the UK ^{[1] [3] [10]} (the number of members of the movement in Egypt alone was close to 75 thousand people, but in 1952, shortly before the overthrow of the monarchy , it was suppressed, and soon from the British orbit of influence fell out and Iraq) ^[35] . At that time, Arabs were often opposed to the British because of policies on Jewish emigration and Palestine ^[9] ; in this context, Stark’s activity was met with skepticism by the British High Commissioner in Egypt, Sir Miles Lampson , who noted that the spread of democratic ideas could have unpleasant consequences for the interests of Great Britain ^[35] . During Stark’s stay in Baghdad in May 1941, a pro-Nazi coup took place, as a result of which she ended up in a British siege that had been under siege for a month, which opened only after the change of government ^[9] (for a period she even held the position of temporary embassy attaché) ^{[ 67]} . In 1943, Stark visited her friend, Lord Commander and Viceroy of India, Lord Wavell ^[10] , who subsequently recognized the Brotherhood’s significant contribution to the fight against anti-allied sabotage in Egypt ^{[30] [35]} .

By convincing her boss to provide her with a government machine to return to Baghdad via Iran, Stark incurred the wrath of her superiors when she sold the car upon arrival in Tehran , raising a substantial amount for it, which may have put an end to her diplomatic career ^[10] . Nevertheless, the British government found the results of its activities quite impressive and at the end of 1943 sent Stark to the USA with now new propaganda tasks ^{[9] [11] [16] [35]} . Crossing the Atlantic on the airliner Aquitania , Stark with an attack of appendicitis spent several days in a hospital in Halifax ( Nova Scotia ), and only after that she toured New York , Washington , Chicago , Los Angeles , San Francisco , Boston ^{[68] [69]} . In America, Stark was campaigning against anti-British Zionist propaganda and defending the British “white paper” with Jewish quotas, but her activities were virtually useless in light of revelations from Eastern Europe ^{[9] [11] [16] [35]} . Not considering herself an anti-Zionist and not having all the information about the catastrophe of European Jewry , she said that the emigration of Jews should cease before peace with the Arabs or go to America, where there are more opportunities than Palestine ^[9] . Some Americans did not like these speeches, and they complained about Stark in Congress as an “agent provocateur” ^{[70] [9]} . Based on the results of six months spent in the USA, Stark concluded that the Americans are superficial materialists, and who are really nice people I met in this country are Jews, who, in her opinion, were the only ones citizens who are really interested in the ideas that they profess ^{[71] [9]} . After the tour, Stark left for Canada , noting with some bitterness that he prefers to be where people do not always think about profit ^{[71] [9] [11]} .

After the war

In 1945, the wife of Lord Wavell asked Stark to engage in attracting Indian women to work for the benefit of the front. Responding to this request, Freya spent six months in India , where she was well received. Despite the fact that in general, Stark found her work unproductive, she tried to make the most of all the opportunities to study the last outpost of the British Empire. In particular, she witnessed the Mohandas Gandhi with Jawaharlal Nehru in Simla ^[71] . Returning at the age of 55, a well-known public figure in post-war Italy, worked for six months in the and was engaged in the restoration of ^{[72] [10]} . In 1946, she became an honorary citizen of Asolo , being the second person in that capacity after Antonio Canova , who received this title back in 1822 ^{[73] [74]} . During his stay in Italy, Stark again began to write ^{[72] [10]} . Reflections on the war years spent in Aden, Yemen, Arabia, Egypt, Palestine, Syria, Transjordan and Iraq are reflected in the book “West is East” (1945) ^[75] , the name of which refers to Kipling ’s : “ West is West, East is East. And they will not come together ” ^[9] . In this work, Stark noted the inevitability of cohesion of the European and Eastern worlds due to the development in the latter of the desire for renewal and modernization - she believed that in the future the Arab peoples would unite with the help of material support and assistance from Great Britain, as well as thanks to the spiritual unity of Islam ^[75] . A few years later, she noticed that Britain lost the Middle East only because of “a lack of clarity and faith in our own values” ^[5] .

In 1947, Freya married Stuart Perone , a British diplomat whom she met back in the late 1930s ^{[3] [10]} . During the war, Peroun was the head of Stark in Aden ^{[62] [10]} , and was also engaged in amateur archeology - it was he who discovered the lost city of Aziris in 1941 ^[11] . Freya learned of the proposal to marry from a telegram ^[76] , after which they married on October 7, 1947 at St. Margaret's Church in Westminster ^[77] , and since then Stark has become known as “Mrs. Perone” ^[76] . Freya got married, not believing the warnings of friends that Stuart is homosexual ^{[14] [13]} . When she said that Peroun prefers young people in military uniforms, she naively asked: “How are the ancient Greeks ?” ^[34] , imagining, probably, the ideal world of ancient Greece with chaste sculptures and sympathies ^[45] . In addition, Perone was 8 years younger than Stark and, apparently, needed only some form of domestic help ^[76] . In such circumstances, their marriage turned into a kind of marriage ^{[78] [79]} , but Freyja refused to believe in Stuart's homosexual orientation and did not lose hope for a wedding night ^{[13] [34]} . Confused by the lack of intimate relationships, Stark wrote to him ^[80] : " I think that you left something that lies between us untold. Be that as it may, it will not make me think less about you or care less about you ” ^[81] . Feeling the need to tackle this delicate problem, Peroun wrote her a response letter in which he described the situation using euphemisms as an example of lunch with friends ^[80] :

Everyone, I think, [were] " strange, ”the word seems much more euphonious to describe homosexuality. And yet their conversation was lively, full of ideas and meaningful. [...] It is difficult to say what is “normal” - my friend, an adviser to , always refuses to use this word, because among men and women we have a wide and diverse range from ultra-males to ultra-females with the natural majority of people in the middle of these degrees. [...] As for me, I see myself in the middle group. I have the usual masculine abilities. I like men's sports, some of them, and I love being in the company of women. In fact, it’s hard for me to live without them. At the same time, representatives of my own gender sometimes physically attract me - in general. For some even pleasant reason - uniform carriers.

Original text

Everyone [was] I think, "queer", which is the argot for homosexuality, and so much more euphonious. And yet their talk was alive, full of ideas and content. [...] It is difficult to say what „normal“ is - my friend a counselor of St. Georges Hospital always refuses to use the word and in both men and women, you have a wide and graded range from ultra-male to ultra-female with naturally mostly people in the middle ranges. [...] Now for myself, I put myself in the middle group. I have ordinary male abilities. I like male sports some of them, and I love the company of women. In fact, I find it hard to exist without it. At the same time, I am occasionally physically attracted by members of my own sex — generalIy. For some even pleasurable reason - by wearers of uniform.

Nevertheless, Freya accompanied her husband to the places of his official appointments: first to the West Indies - to Barbados , and then to Libya ^{[3] [10]} . The marriage of Perone and Stark did not work out, they had no children, and in 1952 the couple broke up, but there was no divorce ^{[3] [5] [10]} . Peroun died in 1989 ^[5] .

Despite failures in her personal life and separation from the Middle East, between 1950 and 1953, Stark was able to publish three volumes of an autobiography, then, in 1961, and a fourth ^[3] . In these works, written mostly in Libya, she alternated letters from the past with modern impressions, resorting to a kind of reflection ^[76] . At that time, she also regularly wrote articles, in particular, about life in Barbados ^{[82] [83]} , the history and culture of Guadeloupe ^[84] , and bullfighting in Mexico City ^[85] .

On December 29, 1949, Stark was elevated to the rank of sister officer of the Order of St. John of Jerusalem ^[86] . In 1951 she became a laureate of the Percy Sykes Memorial Medal from the ^87] , and in 1952 she received an honorary doctorate University of Glasgow ^[88] . On June 1, 1953, she was elevated to the rank of commander of the Order of the British Empire "on the occasion of the Queen " as a "writer and traveler" ^[89] .

Asia

After numerous trips, Stark found her home in Italy ^[1] : she settled in the mountainous town of Asolo , at the foot of the Dolomites ^{[14] [30]} , where she inherited the villa ^[9] : her owner was a longtime family friend - photographer and artist Herbert Hammerton Young (1854-1941) ^{[90] [91]} . The Italian house Stark, distinguished in Arabic with luxurious interiors and an English garden in the form of lawns , has become a meeting place for Arabists, travelers, scientists, diplomats ^[30] . She herself often wandered around the Dolomites, where she spent the night in huts and walked through the passes ^[19] . Having fled from a failed marriage on the coast of Turkey , in the 1950s, Stark discovered a new hobby - interest in Asia Minor ^{[3] [14]} . In the spring of 1952, she went to Izmir , where she went to places described by Herodotus - to Ionia , up the Meander ^[92] . Having studied the Turkish language , Stark took a number of difficult trips, sometimes made on a horse, to the far corners of Anatolia ^[3] . Interested in what she saw in Turkey, she spent a lot of time learning the language in Cyprus in practice, and then followed the path of Alexander the Great , recorded by Arrian , including visiting Xanthos and Sagalassos ^[92] . The result of Turkish travels were several books on the study of the classical heritage in West Asia: “Ionia. Travel "(1954)," Lycian coast "(1956)," The Way of Alexander "(1958)," Riding the Tiger "(1959) ^{[3] [10]} ; and in 1961, Stark released the fourth volume of an autobiography ^[92] . In the preface to the book “Echo of Wanderings: Favorites from Freyja Stark” (1964), a collection of the main works of Stark, writer Laurence Darrell described her as “a travel poet” and “one of the most remarkable women of our time” ^[5] , noting: “The Great the traveler is a kind of child of introspection - covering the surface of the Earth, she moved inside herself as well ” ^[93] . This commentary, as critics noted, is the most accurate characterization of Stark's life and work ^[94] .

In 1966, Freya wrote the work “Rome on the Euphrates,” in which, as an amateur historian, she spoke about the activities of the Romans in the area of ​​one of the borders of their empire , which passed through the Euphrates , for eight hundred years - from 200 BC. e. and until the era of Justinian ^[95] . She also published a collection of already published essays, “The Zodiac Arch” (1968), an exclusive 500- with photographs “Space, Time and Movement in a Landscape” (1969), an Afghan travel essay, “The Minaret of Jama” (1970), Turkish sketches "Turkey: Sketches on Turkish History" and "Gates and Caravans: Portrait of Turkey" (1971), a collection of essays "At the peak of Darien" (1976) ^[96] . In 1971, she began to parse her letters, publishing eight volumes in the period 1974-1982, and in 1988 - one volume of the selected ^[95] .

In 1970, Stark received an honorary doctorate from the University of Durham ^[97] . January 1, 1972 was elevated to the rank of lady commander of the Order of the British Empire as a "writer and traveler" ^[98] . In 1976, she was elected an honorary member of the Alpine Club ^[99] , who had recently joined the ^[19] . February 6, 1981 was elevated to the rank of sister commander of the Order of St. John of Jerusalem ^[100] . In the same year she became the first female guest of the " ^[101] . In 1983 she received for travel books to Persia ^[102] . In 1984, she was handed the Asolo ^{[74] [103]} .

Recent years, death, funeral

At the age of 70 and even 80 years old, Stark led an active lifestyle - she rafted along the Euphrates on a raft, crossed Afghanistan in a jeep, rode a horse through the Nepalese Himalayas ^{[1] [3] [4] [11] [13]} . She wrote that she had ascended to the Jamaican minaret ; She was sincerely glad that she saw the Himalayan Annapurna ; also visited the Pamirs ^{[18] [36] [9]} . In the last decade of Stark's life, her passion for travel was weakened only by senility and memory loss ^{[33] [35] [3]} . When asked what she was missing, Stark said: “I miss climbing and walking. I regret that to some extent I was attached to these unfortunate asphalt roads. My whole goal in life was to get away from the car ” ^[11] . Stark did not have children, but nevertheless, thanks to friends in different countries, she had many godchildren , including , who became her biographer ^{[5] [30]} . Her mother and father died a long time ago ^[16] . Freya survived not only her sister, who died in her youth, but also her daughter Costanza di Roasco Boydo, who died in 1981. Thus, she spent her long old age alone ^{[3] [13]} . When asked about the future, Stark replied: “Of course, my doctor will do everything possible to ensure that I am gone, but I don’t think we should be afraid of death. [...] I regard this as a test ball, or the first meeting with the breeding of hounds, worrying about whether everything will work out correctly, or will come out timidly and inexperienced - like all the excitement of youth ” ^{[5] [11]} . On her she received congratulatory letters from Queen Elizabeth II and Queen Mother ^[11] (who visited her in a villa in Asolo in 1983) ^{[104] [105]} .

Freya Madelyn Stark died of old age on May 9, 1993 at her home in Italian Asolo , four months after her centenary ^{[5] [11] [35] [36]} . At the memorial service held at the 's London in Piccadilly , her memory came to honor the duke and duchess, one countess, three viscounts, three daughters of Indian governors, as well as countless lords, ladies and knight commanders of the British Empire ^{[34 ]} . Stark was buried in the city cemetery of Asolo. ^[11] She lies in the same grave with Herbert Hammerton Young, just a few steps from the burial place of Eleanor Duse ^[106] . On the tombstone, Stark is only knocked out - “ Writer and traveler ” ^[107] . The Stark House in Azolo, known simply as “Villa Freya,” is now turned into a museum ^{[108] [109]} , exhibitions and various educational events dedicated to it are often held in the city ^{[110] [111] [112]} .

The literary archive is kept at at the University of Texas at Austin ^[3] , some letters are in the library of the and the University of New South Wales in Canberra ^[59] , and the photo collection is in the Middle East Center at Oxford ^{[113] [114] [115] [116] [117]} .

The creative legacy of Stark, which became famous for its literary travels, includes two dozen books, eight volumes of collected letters and four volumes of memoirs ^{[1] [9] [10]} .

In 1923, the artist painted a portrait of Freya Stark dressed in a rather modest dress ( 61.9 × 55.5 cm ; oil on canvas ), which is now in the National Portrait Gallery in London ^{[118] [119]} .

In 1934, the artist painted a portrait of Stark sitting in an armchair ( 102 × 85 cm ; oil on canvas), which is in the collection of the Royal Asian Society of Great Britain and Ireland ^{[120] [121]} .

In 2003, the British postal service Royal Mail issued six commemorative stamps in with portraits of Amy Johnson , members of the Everest expedition , Ernest Shackleton , , Robert Scott , and Freya Stark herself , which, among the others, was devoted to several special envelopes with first day stamps ^{[122] [123] [124]} .

• Freya Stark (neopr.) . Encyclopaedia Britannica .
• Lady Freya Madeline Stark (Neopr.) . .
• Freya Madelyn Stark (Neopr.) . Encyclopædia Iranica .
• Freya Stark (neopr.) . Find a Grave .