Julia Secklehner talks to Jamie Walters about her plans to bring the irrepressible American reporter Clare Sheridan back to life, and back to the streets of Lausanne.
Jamie is a writer currently on the MFA programme at Virginia Commonwealth University.
The only woman journalist at Lausanne, Sheridan’s reputation preceded her to the Swiss resort, partly thanks to her personal connections to the likes of Winston Churchill and Lenin, partly thanks to the skill with which she immortalized her subjects, in both word and in the portrait busts she produced. While tight deadlines and telegrams necessarily constrained her to some extent in the reports she sent back to her employers, Sheridan’s wit and aptitude for securing the apparently impossible interview made her the envy of her peers – none more so, perhaps, than Ernest Hemingway.
At Lausanne each nationality gave out its own official story from its individual national point of view. One could glean at least five different stories on the same session. It reminded me of an artist class all painting the same subject, and no two artists seeing it the same way!
Clare Sheridan, “East and West” (1923), p. 237.
Happily Sheridan produced two books alongside her more ephemeral reports, East and West (1923) and The Naked Truth (1928) allowing readers to study her insights into the characters of Mussolini, Curzon and other leading political and diplomatic figures. In this podcast recorded on the 22 September 2022 TLP convenor Julia Secklehner discusses Sheridan with Jamie Walters, who is writing a series of scripts in which Sheridan’s older and younger selves maintain a dialogue with history and each other. This work in progress will hopefully be completed in time for 2023, and contribute to a planned audio trail to Lausanne.
Episode 21 – Clare Sheridan
Podcasts are published by TLP for the purpose of encouraging informed debate on the legacies of the events surrounding the Lausanne Conference. The views expressed by participants do not necessarily represent the views or opinions of TLP, its partners, convenors or members.
MAIN IMAGE: SHERIDAN (CENTRE LEFT, DANCING WITH GEORGY CHICHERIN, FIRING GUN). UNE SOIRÉE CHEZ TCHITCHERIN FROM ALOÏS DERSO AND EMERY KELÈN, GUIGNOL À LAUSANNE (1923). OTHER IMAGES: LE PETIT ÉCHO DE LA MODE, 19 JAN. 1972. PORTRAIT PHOTOGRAPH BY BERTRAM PARK, FRONTIS. TO RUSSIAN PORTRAITS (1921).
The Lausanne Project 