THE
SHARAFF/SZE
COLLECTION
In 1993 the Library received a bequest of some 400 books from the estates of Irene Sharaff and Mai-mai Sze. This legacy reflects the many interests of these brilliant and innovative women. It is a grand addition to the Library's holdings of twentieth-century literature, British and Chinese art, philosophy and religion.
Irene Sharaff was born in Boston and brought up by her mother. As a teenager she studied painting at the New York School of Fine and Applied Art (now the Parsons School of Design) in New York City. An insurance payment from a traffic accident allowed her to move to Paris where she continued her pursuit of art. In 1928 she was hired by Aline Bernstein at Eva Le Gallienne's Civic Repertory Theatre as her assistant for costumes, scenery and properties. She made her professional debut in 1932 with Alice in Wonderland. Sharaff later created scenery and costumes for the Ballet Russes de Monte Carlo, the New York City Ballet, and the Royal Ballet in London.
Sharaff contributed to more than sixty stage productions. Her stylish designs were based on meticulous research. Color and materials were important to her. The sumptuous costumes for The King and I made Thai silk fashionable. In Hollywood she won five Oscars for costume design: An American in Paris, for which she also designed the scenery for Gene Kelly's memorable ballet sequence, The King and I, West Side Story, Cleopatra and Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? (Visitors to her home could see the Oscars displayed atop a toilet tank.)
Mai-mai Sze was born in Peking, where her mother had been a lady-in-waiting to the last Dowager Empress. Her father was ambassador to the Court of St. James's and later to the United States. Sze grew up in London and graduated from Wellesley College. During World War II, she organized the first Chinese War Relief Committee in New York and lectured throughout the US. in support of China.
Sze worked as a fashion model for Schiaparelli and also acted on Broadway in Lady Precious Stream, a love story set in China. A painter and author, she wrote the autobiographical Echo of a Cry and The Tao of Painting, part of the Bollingen series. The Tao includes Sze's translation of the seventeenth-century Mustard Seed Garden Manual of Painting. Her paintings were exhibited in New York, London and Paris. Sze's drawing of Eugene O'Neill was his favorite.
Mai-mai Sze and Irene Sharaff moved effortlessly between the literary and visual arts, between high and popular culture. In addition to their bequest to this Library, they provided for the Music Pavilion of Lucy Cavendish College, Cambridge University. They were unique.
Selected Sharaff-Sze Books:
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