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1944

Class Notes Archives


----- From December 2011 AALFNY Newsletter -----

................................................................................
In Memoriam:
Maurice R. Raviol ('44) (†February 28, 2011)
(See In memoriam section of this newsletter for further details, or click on link below)
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Ludmila Svetlana (Alexeieff) Rockwell ('44) wrote: "At the age of 88 I am doing really very well. I have been painting and having shows of my work which consists in making abstract pastels of the New England Coastline.
I also curate the graphic works of my father the illustrator of rare books Alexandre ALEXEIEFF. I worked with the Museum of Russian Literature and the Museum of Modern Art in Moscow this year for an exhibit which showed fifteen of his books during august and september. A magnificent catalogue is available through the publisher Vita Nova in St.Petersburg Russia.
I also helped the director of the Fondation Art ex East in Geneva to publish 115 illustrations for Cervantes's Don Quichotte's book which was printed by the Rigal printers in Fontenay aux Roses,France.
My memoirs "Snapshots" are to be published in Saint Petersburg as well.
My three daughters Dominique Valery and Alexandra are very active in the Boston area and my son Alexandre is teaching film directing at NYU.
I had the great pleasure of seeing Claudine Herrman ('44) this fall who came to Boston and went with me to Provincetown Mass., a place we cherish and remembered well from the forties.
Claudine is working on her father's letters and intends to publish them.
We have been in touch also with Claire Nicolas ('44), Jean Alvarez de Toledo ('44) and Michel Grinberg ('44).
The hard part about getting old is that you see your friend vanish like flies . If you read this note and are still alive please read my website (click on link below) and get in touch with me."

Michel Guggenheim (’44) (Ph.D., Yale University) is Professor Emeritus of French at Bryn Mawr College

----- From November 2010 AALFNY Newsletter -----

Gabrielle Griswold ('44) visited the Lycée's new facilities, 60+ years after her studies at 3 East 95th Street, and shares her impressions with us. (See Alumni Creative section of this newsletter, or click on link below.)

Ludmila Svetlana (Alexeieff) Rockwell ('44) nous écrit: "« Mes mémoires (Snapshots) vont être publiées en Russie . J'ai fait deux expositions de mes pastels en Nouvelle Angleterre. Vous pouvez voir mes œuvres sur le site www.svetlanarockwell.com. D'autre part je suis en train de faire publier les 115 gravures pour Don Quichotte que mon père Alexandre Alexeieff a fait il y a 50 ans de cela à Paris pour les imprimeurs Rigal. Je serai donc à Paris lors de leur sortie cet hiver. Mon fils Alexandre Rockwell, metteur en scène indépendant, vient de terminer son dernier film "Pete Small is Dead" . J'ai vu Jean Alvarez de Toledo ('44) et Michel Grinberg ('44) à Paris en juin, et je suis toujours en communication avec Betsy Jolas ('43). »

Videos of LFNY alumni on the internet:
Michel Grinberg Vinaver ('44): Entretien à l'occasion de la mise en scène de Par dessus bord (Click on link below)

----- From December 2009 AALFNY Newsletter -----

Ludmila Svetlana (Alexeieff) Rockwell ('44) nous écrit: "Certains d'entre vous seront curieux d'avoir des nouvelles d'amis de la classe '44 ! Je n'utilise plus le nom de Ludmila Alexeieff. Désormais je me nomme Svetlana Rockwell, nom que je garde comme artiste peintre et écrivain. Vous pouvez regarder mon site sous ce nom afin de voir mes peintures: www.svetlanarockwell.com. Claudine Herrmann, Jean Alvarez de Toledo, Michel Grinberg et Svetlana Alexeieff-Rockwell vont diner ensemble à Paris ce mois de juin. Jean, Claudine, et Svetlana ont écrit leurs mémoires ou ils mentionnent le Lycée. Betsy Jolas va également rencontrer Svetlana. Des nouvelles plus détaillées sortiront après leur rencontre." (Click on link below to access Svetlana's website)

● "Claire Nicolas White ('44) is an author and translator. She has written art criticism (Art News, Newsday), librettos, plays, and is the author of: a family history, The Elephant and the Rose (The Vineyard Press, 2003); a memoir, Fragments of Stained Glass (Mercury House, 1989); a biography, Joep Nicolas, His Life and Work (Van Spijk, 1979); poetry, Biography and Other Poems (Doubleday, 1981), The Bridge (Cross Cultural Communications, 1987), Riding at Anchor (Waterline Books, 1994), News From Home (Birnham Woods Graphics, 1998); and a novel, The Death of the Orange Trees (Harper and Row, 1963).
Her poetry has appeared in such magazines as The New Yorker, Partisan Review, Grand Street, Atlantic Monthly, Witness, Confrontation, The Paris Review, and others. She is the editor of Oberon poetry magazine.
She translated three novels from the Dutch: The Assault by Harry Mulisch (Pantheon Books, 1985 Honorable mention PEN Translation prize); The Vanishing by Tim Krabbé (Random House, 1993); and My Father's War by Adraan van Dis (The New Press, 1996). In 1990, she edited a Dutch issue of Columbia University's Translation Magazine and in 1997, Stanford White, Letters to His Family (Rizzoli)."
"She was born in the Netherlands and came to America as a child when World War II began. In 1947 she moved to St. James, Long Island, where she has lived with her family. She was married to Robert White, the sculptor and painter, and grandson of Stanford White."
(http://www.thevineyardpress.com/pages/authors.html) and (http://www.sunysb.edu/libspecial/collections/manuscripts/white.shtml)

● "Claudine Herrmann ('44) became famous in France with the publication of "Les Voleuses de langue" in 1976. Her much-quoted book is now recognized as a modern classic of feminist literary criticism. Nancy Kline's welcome English translation captures the clarity and passion of observations that go beyond books to boudoirs and boardrooms. Herrmann charges that language is the fundamental means by which women are oppressed. Their education forces them to parrot masculine discourse, often gets them dismissed as chatterboxes, and silences their real lives. Women who desire to express themselves creatively are obliged to "steal" language or to invent one of their own. Based on readings of major texts in literature, philosophy, and the social sciences, "The Tongue Snatchers" illuminates how men and women differ in their experiences of words, work, space, time, love, and sexuality."
(http://www.infibeam.com/Books/info/Claudine-Herrmann/The-Tongue-Snatchers/0803272529.html)

----- From July 2008 AALFNY Newsletter -----

Gabrielle Griswold ('44) wrote: "It's been great here at Kendal-at-Longwood [where I am] enjoying the company of three former Lycee schoolmates from nearly 70 years ago (!), and finding them all still active and thriving. They are Hilda Beer Grauman ('42), Martin Beer and Jean Beer, whose elder sister Lise (also a lyceene) was here when I arrived a year-and-a-half ago, but who passed away sometime last year. We are all good friends, and HIlda, Jean and I host a French-speaking table in our dining-room once a month, which usually numbers about 10 or 12 participants. It was also quite wonderful to hear from former classmate Ludmilla Alexeiff ('44), who now goes by the name of Svetlana Rockwell. We were both grateful to the Lycee's alumni association for reuniting us via e-mail." Gabrielle, who has been a prolific contributor to our newsletter, also submitted a poem which you can read by clicking on the link below.

● "Michel Vinaver ['44] was born in Paris in 1927. He had two novels published by Gallimard, in 1950 and 1951, on the recommendation of Albert Camus. In parallel with his business career working for the Gillette Company, he started as a playwright in 1955, never to return to the narrative form. His dramatic works include 18 plays and 7 adaptations or translations, alongside theoretical and critical essays. Upon leaving Gillette, he was appointed professor of Dramatic Studies at Université Paris III and subsequently Paris VIII. Vinaver owes to Wesleyan University, Middletown, Connecticut — which awarded him a Bachelor of Arts Degree in 1947 — the revelation of T. S. Eliot's The Wasteland, which he translated and which has had a never-ending impact on his dramatic writing." (From: City University of NT, http://web.gc.cuny.edu/Mestc/programs/spring07/penworldvoices.html)


----- From December 2007 AALFNY Newsletter -----

Ludmila Svetlana Alexeieff-Rockwell ('44) nous écrit: "Cher ami: Je voudrais communiquer le fait que j'ai terminé mes Mémoires qui couvrent la periode ou j'étais au lycée francais pendant la guerre. J'ai ecrit ces Mémoires en anglais et maintenant elles vont être traduites en français. Si l'un d'entre vous connait une petite maison d'edition aux Etats Unis qui risque de s'interesser, veuillez avoir la gentilese de me le communiquer.
Le livre 'SNAPSHOT' couvre mon enfançe à Paris, les rencontres avec diverses amis de mes parents, Philippe Soupault, André Malraux, sa femme Clara Goldshmidt Malraux, ensuite l'exode jusqu'au Portugal, l'arrivée à New York, et les diverses rencontres avec Yul Brynner, Alexandre Calder, W.H. Auden, Eugene Jolas, Jacques Schiffrin, Marc Chagall, André Kertesz et bien d'autres."

Gabrielle Griswold ('44) wrote: "Here is an update on my current life at the continuing care retirement community called Kendal-at-Longwood in Kennett Square, Pa. I arrived here on 16 Nov. 2006, hence just about one year ago, and am absolutely loving the place, which is full of active, vital and interesting residents, and gives one both the privacy and the mental stimulation one needs.
Among the first people I discovered living here when I moved in last fall was Hilda (Beer) Grauman, who was two years ahead of me back in those Lycée days. In addition, I found that her older sister, Lise, and brothers Martin and Jean Beer were also here (Lise, the eldest of the four, has since passed away.) She and I decided immediately that we would start a French table, and we did. It meets once a month, with a turn-out of between eight and sixteen people, and all conversation held there takes place in French. A new Chinese resident due soon to move in is very excited about the opportunity of speaking French here because he went to a French Lycée in Shanghai!
Within the past several months, thanks to the New York lycee's alumni ssociation I have also heard from (and been in e-mail correspondence with) Svetlana Rockwell ('44) Guess that's all for now. Must dash." (Also, click on link below for a poem by Gabrielle-'Full Moon Rising')

----- From June 2007 AALFNY Newsletter -----

Ludmila Svetlana (Alexeieff) Rockwell ('44) est peintre et ecrivain, et habite le Massachusetts.

● Click on link below, for a poem by Gabrielle Griswold ('44) --The Gypsies' Lament

----- From December 2006 AALFNY Newsletter -----

Gabrielle Griswold, ’44 sent her regrets for not being able to attend the AALFNY May 31st reunion in NYC, and wrote: "How I wish I could get there for the reunion, but unfortunately I am so busy just at present that I'm afraid it's impossible. But another time, perhaps! I'd love to get to know some of you with whom I've been in correspondence but still haven't met. Think of me, and I'll be thinking of all of you. Special greetings also to my former classmate, Maurice Raviol, who I believe does plan to attend. When next in New York, perhaps I'll get to see you all. Best and warmest wishes."
Gabrielle also wrote another in her series of articles for us, entitled The 1938-1939 School Year: Part 2, The Lyçée Kids I Remember

----- From Winter 2003-2004 AALFNY Newsletter -----

Maurice Raviol writes: "Married 1954. Still married to the same woman! I have one son, Michel, who attended the LFNY in the sixties & seventies. Now he’s a grandfather of two beautiful girls."

Gabrielle Griswold shares this with us: “I continue to work full-time as a writer on many different topics (arts, crafts, history, drama, business, farms, animals, personality profiles, and some news) for the local weekly paper.”

-----From Winter2002/2003 AALFNY Newsletter -----

Gabrielle Griswold writes: “Yes, I am still a full-time staff writer (not a reporter) for our local weekly newspaper, The Mountain EAR. I take photos for and write: feature stories, personality profiles, history stories, art stories, crafts stories, animal stories, school stories, seasonal (notably Christmas) stories, play reviews, veterans' stories, technology stories, some business pieces and some (generally few) news stories, plus a few other miscellaneous things besides. Our paper's circulation is roughly 15,000, (probably more during the summer season), and we recently won a New England Press Association award in the "General Excellence" category -- the first time we ever entered the competition!....I love my job, which comprises a great deal of variety and a pleasant balance between time spent at the computer and time spent on the road taking photographs and doing interviews. I meet some fabulous people, learn their life stories, am tied right in to the community and its activities, and am in the fortunate position of always learning something new, which I relish. The job keeps me mentally stimulated and, I believe, helps preserve my youthful spirit. (Isn't it nice that one can write at any age?) It is also a considerable satisfaction at the end of each week to know that at least 15,000 pairs of eyes will see the result of my efforts!

I am formerly married, presently divorced from Boston attorney Jerome Facher. (In case you read the book or saw the movie "A Civil Action," he was the lawyer who represented the corporate "villains" in the case.) Actually I was Gabrielle Facher during my marriage and only returned to my maiden name after my divorce. I don't know if I ever told you that I spent the decade of my 20s living and working in Paris and London, first for the Marshall Plan, then for its successor agency the Mutual Security Administration, and finally for N.A.T.O. (before it moved to Brussels).”

Elisabeth (Bertol) Moon wrote and told us that she is still in close contact with her childhood friend and classmate Dorrance (Velay) D'André '44 and had been in contact for many years with Esther (Huisman) Asper '44 until she passed away three years ago. Elizabeth and Gabrielle Griswold recently contacted each other thanks to the AALFNY “Find a Classmate” service!

----- From March/April 2002 AALFNY Newsletter -----

Gabrielle Griswold writes us : " I started at the Lycee in 1938 when the school was only three years old, and I can remember quite clearly who most of my classmates were. Among them: Christiane Donat, Pauline Frassati, Greta Unger, Pierre Grelet, Charles Haines, Ethan Davis, Gerard Tanqueray, Georges Gonod, Francois Lee, Marcel Lavignette, and one or two others. After I skipped 4ème, my classmates were Eleanor Cramer, Gloria Alvarez, Elizabeth Bertol, Esther Huisman, Maurice Raviol, Jacques Regard, Ludmilla Alexeiff, Marcel Monory, Michel Guggenheim, Jean Alvarez de Toledo, Jean-Pierre Petolas, Raoul Grenade -- plus several others. In one of those two grades there were also Claire Nicholas, Bonita Boomer, Jacques Changeux, François Pardo, Jacques Regard, Natasha Dorfman, Pierre Monsarrat, equally classmates of mine at some point or other. In some of the other classes of the time, names I remember are those of Jacqueline Dutacq. Jean Arabo, David Leach, and René de Chambrun. Some of these people may even have come and gone prior to 1940. I know that Christiane Donat and her older sister, Odile, returned to France at some point during my first Lycée year. I had been friends with both of them. We corresponded for a time after they left, then lost track, and God knows whether they even survived World War II. I have often wondered about them. [My brother] Arthur Robbins Griswold Jr., two years younger than I, also attended the Lycée during the same years I did (1938 to 1941 or 1942). He died some years ago. One further note: my mother, Gabrielle Krazewska Griswold, taught English at the Lycée during, I believe, the same years my brother and I attended school there."

----- From July/August 2001 AALFNY Newsletter -----

Juan Alvarez de Toledo wrote the following letter after his visit to the 95th St LFNY in Spring 2000 : "Cher Lycée, Merci pour ton accueil chaleureux lors de mon passage chez "nous" fin avril. Soixante ans n'auront terni la vivacité d'aucun souvenir de tes murs et tes habitants. J'ai été particulièrement touché par la lettre d'Esther Huisman '43 et d'y retrouver mon nom parmi ceux des personnages de mon enfance.

La disparaition du cher M. Brodin ne pouvait pas m'étonner mais j'ai eu le coeur serré en revoyant son élégante silhouette descendre le grand escalier. Voici quelques années, j'ai écrit quelques souvenirs d'enfance et de jeunesse. Une échange de lettres avec M. Brodin remontant à mars 1982 (il demandait qu'on lui écrive et parle du temps passé du Lycée) m'encourage à vous adresser une copie de ces souvenirs, où je parle beaucoup du Lycée et de quelques visages encore très présents." Les souvenirs de Juan sont intitulés "l'Agreste Minot."

----- From November/December 2000 AALFNY Newsletter -----

Jacques Regard wrote from Spain «By chance, I came upon a copy of your April newsletter. Please accept the sincere congratulations of an old '44 alumnus. I am certain that many grads have felt the need for a nostalgic Who's Who listing the students who have attended the LFNY since its start in 1937.Perhaps a CD database could be developed and successfully sold!»







TOP: Maurice Raviol ('44) Past President and Founder of AALFNY; BOTTOM: Ludmila Svetlana (Alexeieff) Rockwell ('44)
TOP: Maurice Raviol ('44) Past President and Founder of AALFNY; BOTTOM: Ludmila Svetlana (Alexeieff) Rockwell ('44)

Michel Vinaver ('44) and one of his works
Michel Vinaver ('44) and one of his works
Claire (Nicolas) White ('44)
Claire (Nicolas) White ('44)
Claudine Herrmann ('44)
Claudine Herrmann ('44)
Ludmila Svetlana (Alexeieff) Rockwell ('44)
Ludmila Svetlana (Alexeieff) Rockwell ('44)