Clare Benedict

Clare Benedict (* 1870 in Cleveland , Ohio ; † 1961 in Lucerne , Switzerland ) was an American author and patron .

Life

Benedict came from a very wealthy family and was able to live on her family's assets for the rest of her life. As a child, she traveled to Europe with her mother Clara (1844–1923). Around 1885 Benedict and her mother visited her aunt Constance , a friend of the writer Henry James, in London . After a long stay there, the three women began to travel Europe again and again. The main focus was on the large opera houses and theaters. When her aunt died in Venice in 1894 , Benedict and her mother continued their unsteady wandering life through European countries.

During her travels through Germany, she also had contact with the German Schiller Foundation in Weimar and gave it extremely generous support after the First World War . For this purpose, Benedict was made an honorary member of this foundation in 1923 . In the same year Benedict's mother died and was buried next to Benedict's aunt in Rome on the Cimitero acattolico ; the cemetery administration was also given very generous support.

In 1938 she made large sums available with which the Woolson House could be founded at Rollins College in Winter Park ( Florida ) . It was built by architects Richard Kiehnel and John M. Elliot and named in honor of their aunt.

Due to the political situation, the travels became more and more difficult and so Benedict settled in Basel in 1939 and stayed there until 1941. In that year the USA declared war on Germany and Benedict moved her residence to Lucerne. At her new place of residence she made the acquaintance of Alois Nagler , among others, through her social commitment , with whom she founded a chess tournament in 1953 , which with a few exceptions took place annually until 1979. The year before, she had initiated the James Fenimore Cooper Scholarship at the University of Basel and bequeathed her book collection to the affiliated library .

Benedict died in Lucerne in 1941 at the age of 91 and found her final resting place next to her mother and her aunt Constance on the Cimitero acattolico in Rome.

Honors

• 1923 honorary member of the German Schiller Foundation
• In 1953 the Clare Benedict Cup was named after her.
• Tulipa eichleri "Clare Benedict" bears her name

Works (selection)

as an author

• A reflection and other stories . Putnam Publ., New York 1909.
• European backgrounds . A. Eliot Books, Edinburgh 1912.
• The little lost prince . A. Eliot Books, Edinburgh 1912.
• The divine spark . Private print 1913.
• Six months. March to August 1914 . Crist Publ., Cooperstown, NY 1914.
  • German: Six months. March-August 1914 . Private print, London 1917.

as editor

• Five generations. 1785-1932 . Ellis Press, London 1930.

1. Voices out of the past .
2. Constance Fenimore Woolson .
3. The Benedicts abroad .

• The In Memoy Library . Private print, Lucerne 1960.

literature

• Richard Forster: Schachgesellschaft Zürich 1809 to 2009. A Helvetic chess society in 2 centuries with a tournament and person lexicon . Schachgesellschaft, Zurich 2009. ISBN 978-3-033-01917-1 .

Web links

• Elena Macellari: In ricordo di un fiore emblema di fedelta . 2015