Paxinou & Waterlow

Forty-five autographed love letters from Katina Paxinou to Sir Sydney Waterlow, dated April, 1938, to June, 1939, together with some 30 love letters by Waterlow to Paxinou are to be auctioned off in London on July 17th.

From Sothbey's listing:

Sir Sydney Waterlow (1878-1944) was British Minister in Athens from 1933 to 1939. According to one of the present letters, he met the actress Katina Paxinou on 12 April 1938, a date which they both viewed as a moment of "rebirth", when they became "fully alive" for the first time. It was evidently a coup de foudre for them both, and the present letters testify not only to the physical passion but the depth of feeling on both sides.

Katina Paxinou (1900-1973) was a member of the Greek National Theatre company, where she was directed by her husband Alexis Minotis. Besides the role of Electra, she was well-known for playing Mrs Alving in Ghosts, and Hedda Gabler.

At the beginning she protests that she is asking for nothing more than to be loved, and that she is content to remain on the sidelines

"...tu dois me connaître déjà assez pour être persuadé que je ne demande rien que ton amour! Tu n'es pas libre j'en conviens! Mais je n'abuserai jamais de ta faiblesse comme tu la nommes et je ne veux qu'être aimée de toi. Je ne veux pas troubler ta vie. Tu le sais..."

Later, however, plans start to be made for when they are "free" and can be together permanently. In one letter she describes a painful scene with her husband, whom she is unable to comfort, assuring Waterlow that this is nothing to do with him and that things would have been the same in any case ("...je ne peux plus le consoler et j'en souffre car il mérite un meilleur sort..."). Elsewhere she relates somewhat pathetically how she has waited for half an hour outside the English church in Athens in the hope of catching a glimpse of him, or walked past his house gazing up at the windows even when she knows he is not there, expresses her maternal affection towards his daughter, asks him somewhat apologetically to get her a big pot of Elizabeth Arden face cream which she uses to counteract the effects of her stage make-up, recounts a number of her dreams (often of an erotic nature) of being alone with him in a little love nest, and recalls the afternoons they were able to spend together

"...oh nos chers après midi où tu m'attendais étendu dans ton lit, et où je venais comme une voleuse par le balcon vite vite toute tremblante me fourrer à tes côtes, me blottir contre ton coeur..."

After a period of nervous collapse from exhaustion she promises to look after her health for his sake, and describes somewhat sheepishly a visit to a fortune teller who described their situation with uncanny accuracy.