Produced by Chuck Greif and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This file was produced from images available at The Internet Archive) [Illustration: book's cover] GERALDINE FARRAR _THE STORY OF AN AMERICAN SINGER_ [Illustration: _Photo by Victor Georg_ Signature of Geraldine Farrar] GERALDINE FARRAR THE STORY OF AN AMERICAN SINGER BY HERSELF WITH ILLUSTRATIONS [Illustration] BOSTON AND NEW YORK HOUGHTON MIFFLIN COMPANY MDCCCCXVI COPYRIGHT, 1915 AND 1916, BY THE CURTIS PUBLISHING COMPANY COPYRIGHT, 1916, BY GERALDINE FARRAR-TELLEGEN ALL RIGHTS RESERVED _Published March 1916_ A DEDICATION In offering these little sketches of some of the interesting events that have helped shape a career now fairly familiar to the general public, it has not been my intention to weary the indulgent reader with a lengthy dissertation of literary pretension, or tiresome data resulting from the obvious and oft-recurring "I." From out the storehouse of memory, impressions crystallized into form without regard to time or place, and it was more than a passing pleasure to jot them down at haphazard; in the quiet of my library, on the flying train, or again, beneath the witchery of California skies, I scribbled as the mood prompted, as I would converse with an interested and congenial listener. It is not, perhaps, a New England characteristic to expand in affectionate eulogy for the satisfaction of a curious public, but the threads of these recollections are so closely interwoven with maternal love and devotion, that this volume would be incomplete without its rightful dedication to MY MOTHER G. F. CONTENTS I. MY LIFE AS A CHILD 1 II. THE DRAMATIC IMPULSE 8 III. I RESOLVE TO SING "CARMEN" 18 IV. MY FIRST DAYS IN MY DREAM WORLD 28 V. I REFUSE TO SING AT THE METROPOLITAN 36 VI. PARIS 42 VII. GERMANY: THE TURNING-POINT 50 VIII. IMPERIAL ENCOURAGEMENT 59 IX. ON TOUR; MONTE CARLO AND STOCKHOLM 68 X. MY FOURTH SEASON 77 XI. LEAVING BERLIN 84 XII. MY FIRST APPEARANCE IN NEW YORK 89 XIII. MISUNDERSTANDINGS 99 XIV. THE DAYS I NOW ENJOY 108 ILLUSTRATIONS "_Columbia_" (_From a photograph by Ira L. Hill_) _Jacket illustration_ _Geraldine Farrar_ (_From a recent photograph by Victor Georg_) _Frontispiece_ _Miss Farrar as a Little Girl in Melrose_ 2 _Mr. and Mrs. Sydney D. Farrar_ 4 _Miss Farrar and her First Singing Teacher, Mrs. Long_ 8 _A Young Girl with a Phenomenal Soprano Voice_ 12 _Growing up_ 16 _The Goose Girl and her Flock_ 22