Author: Artemis Leontis

Brigit Katz, Hyperallergic review: “Remembering Eva Palmer Sikelianos, the Artist Who Lived Like an Ancient Greek,” Hyperallergic, July 5, 2019

Artemis Leontis

Brigit Katz writes, “An illuminating biography by Artemis Leontis reveals the little-known story of Eva’s mission to revive an ancient culture…. [Τ]he author renders some aspects of Eva’s personal life — like her difficult love affair with Natalie [Clifford Barney] — in electric detail… [Τ]hrough meticulous attention to her subject’s own work, Leontis makes a strong argument that Eva’s impact on modern culture has not received nearly as much appreciation as it deserves.”

Mary Norris on the renaissance of interest in Ancient and Modern Greek

Artemis Leontis

Mary Norris had an event in at the Brooklyn Fiction Center with Anne Goldstein on June 25, 2019 for her new book, Greek to Me: Adventures of the Comma Queen. She wrote a recap on her blog. The main subject: renaissance of interest in Ancient and Modern Greek, in which she wrote this about my book:

“Artemis Leontis, EVA PALMER SIKELIANOS: A LIFE IN RUINS fascinating academic work on a wealthy American woman who married the Greek poet Angelos Sikelianos, wove her own ancient-Greek style tunics and himations, and staged Greek plays in Delphi.”

Greek News Agenda: Rethinking Greece: Artemis Leontis on the cultural biography of Eva Palmer Sikelianos and the modern reception of Classical Greece

Artemis Leontis

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Artemis Leontis is C. P. Cavafy Professor of Modern Greek and Comparative Literature and chair of  the Department of Classical Studies at the University of Michigan. Her field of specialization is Modern Greek Studies and her research interests range from the study of Greeks and the Greek language to the idea of Greece cultivated in the West in the modern period. Her latest book, Eva Palmer Sikelianos: A Life in Ruins (Princeton University Press, 2019), tells the story of an atypical American philhellene, while at the same time addressing larger issues such as the modern reception of Classical Greece and the challenges posed to the West by Modern Greece. Greek News Agenda* had the opportunity to interview Professor Leontis on her recent research on the life of Eva Palmer Sikelianos, as well as on the present and future of Modern Greek Studies in American academia.

(Continue reading here.)

Steven Slosberg, “Postscripts: Descendant of Stonington’s Palmer family had a lifelong role in Greece,” Westerly Sun, June 1, 2019

Artemis Leontis

Her pedigree was rooted in one of Stonington’s founding families: The Palmers.
Her paternal great-grandfather, Amos Palmer, was a sea captain and Revolutionary War privateer, whose historic home — the Capt. Amos Palmer House (1797) — is a village landmark at 24 Main St.
Her paternal grandfather, Courtland Palmer, born in Stonington, was president of the New York, Providence and Boston Railroad, known as the Stonington, and, as such, was overpowered by Cornelius Vanderbilt, “The Commodore,” who aggressively grabbed control of the rail line in the late 1830s…