Nilla Cram Cook
{{short description|American writer}}
{{Infobox person
| name = Nilla Cram Cook
| image = NillaCramCook1933.png
| alt = A white woman with dark hair parted center, wearing a bindi and beads, smiling.
| caption = Nilla Cram Cook while she was living in India, from a 1933 Australian newspaper.
| other_names = Nila Nagini Devi (Hindu name)
| birth_name =
| birth_date = December 21, 1908
| birth_place = Davenport, Iowa, U.S.
| death_date = October 11, 1982
| death_place = Neunkirchen, Austria
| occupation = Writer, translator, linguist, arts patron
| years_active =
| known_for =
| notable_works =
| spouse(s) =
| parents = George Cram Cook
}}
Nilla Cram Cook (December 21, 1908 – October 11, 1982), also known as Nila Nagini Devi, was an American writer, linguist, translator, and arts patron.
Early life
Nilla Cram Cook was born in Davenport, Iowa, the daughter of playwright George Cram Cook and his second wife, journalist Mollie Anastasia Price. Her father and stepmother Susan Glaspell brought her to Greece as a girl, to study languages and culture there.{{Cite book|last=Deloria|first=Philip J.|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=zJeTDwAAQBAJ&q=Nila+Cram+Cook&pg=PA78|title=Becoming Mary Sully: Toward an American Indian Abstract|date=2019-04-16|publisher=University of Washington Press|isbn=978-0-295-74524-4|pages=78–82|language=en}}{{Cite news|last=Barker|first=Ama|date=1933-12-03|title=Too Much Cleopatra Turns U. S. Girl from Gandhi to Whoopee|pages=257|work=Daily News|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/59499083/too-much-cleopatra-turns-u-s-girl/|access-date=2020-09-18|via=Newspapers.com}}
Career
In 1931, Cook left her husband in Greece and brought her young son to Kashmir, where she became a follower of Gandhi,{{Cite magazine|date=1933-12-11|title=INDIA: INDIA Runaway Disciple|language=en-US|magazine=Time|url=http://content.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,746483,00.html|access-date=2020-09-17|issn=0040-781X}}{{Cite book|last=Kapoor|first=Pramod|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=c0nTDQAAQBAJ&q=Nila+Cram+Cook&pg=PT345|title=Gandhi: An Illustrated Biography|date=2017-10-24|publisher=Running Press|isbn=978-0-316-55416-9|language=en}} converted to Hinduism,{{Cite news|date=July 25, 1932|title=American Girl Accepts Hinduism|page=6|work=The Bombay Chronicle|url=https://archive.org/details/dli.granth.866/page/n5/mode/2up?q=Nila+Cram+Cook|access-date=September 17, 2020|via=Internet Archive}} and studied Sanskrit, Hindi, and Persian literatures. After she left Gandhi's ashram,{{Cite news|date=December 2, 1934|title='Morbid Girls Not to Gandhiji's Taste'|page=12|work=The Bombay Chronicle|url=https://archive.org/details/dli.granth.8922/page/12/mode/2up?q=Nila+Cram+Cook|access-date=September 17, 2020|via=Internet Archive}} with a shaved head and barefoot,{{Cite news|date=October 17, 1933|title=Nila Nagini Disappears|page=12|work=The Bombay Chronicle|url=https://archive.org/details/dli.granth.1160/page/12/mode/2up?q=Nila+Cram+Cook|access-date=September 17, 2020|via=Internet Archive}}{{Cite news|date=October 20, 1933|title=Nila Nagini Staying at Muttra?|page=1|work=The Bombay Chronicle|url=https://archive.org/details/dli.granth.1163/mode/2up?q=Nila+Cram+Cook|access-date=September 17, 2020|via=Internet Archive}} she crashed a car,{{Cite news|date=1934-02-18|title=NEUROTIC NILA|pages=11|work=Truth (Brisbane, Qld. : 1900 - 1954)|url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article198234015|access-date=2020-09-18|via=Trove}} and was detained as a vagrant and hospitalized for a month in 1934, in Calcutta,{{Cite news|date=January 11, 1934|title=Gandhi's Disciple Without a Home|page=1|work=Manchester Evening Herald|url=http://www.manchesterhistory.org/News/Manchester%20Evening%20Hearld_1934-01-11.pdf|access-date=September 17, 2020}}{{Cite news|date=January 10, 1934|title=Nila Nagini Better|page=1|work=The Bombay Chronicle|url=https://archive.org/details/dli.granth.1225?q=Nila+Cram+Cook|access-date=September 17, 2020|via=Internet Archive}} then deported with her son back to the United States.{{Cite news|date=1934-01-14|title=Nila Cram Cook to Get Her Son.|language=en-US|work=The New York Times|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1934/01/14/archives/nila-cram-cook-to-get-her-son.html|access-date=2020-09-17|issn=0362-4331}}{{Cite news|date=1934-02-14|title=BEAUTIfUL WOMAN|pages=6|work=Daily Advertiser (Wagga Wagga, NSW : 1911 - 1954)|url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article143587356|access-date=2020-09-18|via=Newspapers.com}} On arrival at Ellis Island, she made odd pronouncements ("delusions of grandeur", according to her brother), and news stories remarked on the "dramatic" and "hectic" scene.{{Cite news|last=McCoy|first=Homer|date=1934-03-24|title=Nila Cram Cook Returns to U. S. -- Dramatically|pages=1|work=Globe-Gazette|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/5782727/nila-cram-cook-detained-on-ellis-island/|access-date=2020-09-17|via=Newspapers.com}}{{Cite news|date=1934-03-25|title=NILA GRAM COOK AND HER SON HERE; Former Disciple of Mahatma Gandhi Talks Volubly of 'Sunshine in Athens.' BOY SENT TO ELLIS ISLAND He Later Is Released in the Custody of Uncle -- Plans for Future Obscure.|language=en-US|work=The New York Times|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1934/03/25/archives/nila-gram-cook-and-her-son-here-former-disciple-of-mahatma-gandhi.html|access-date=2020-09-17|issn=0362-4331}} She wrote about this part of her life in a memoir, My Road to India (1939).{{Cite book|last=Cook|first=Nilla Cram|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=xX01AAAAIAAJ|title=My Road to India|date=1939|publisher=L. Furman, Incorporated|language=en}}{{Cite news|date=1939-09-22|title=Books of this Week|pages=19|work=The Boston Globe|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/59516022/books-of-this-week/|access-date=2020-09-18|via=Newspapers.com}} Mary Sully painted an abstract portrait titled "Nila Cram Cook" in the 1930s.
In 1939, she became Europe correspondent for an American weekly, Liberty. She covered World War II from Greece, until she escaped Nazi detention in July 1941, and fled with her son to Tehran.{{Cite book|last=Weller|first=George|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=38CiN8oS7YYC&q=Nila+Cram+Cook&pg=PA54|title=Weller's War: A Legendary Foreign Correspondent's Saga of World War II on Five Continents|date=2009-04-28|publisher=Crown|isbn=978-0-307-45224-5|pages=53–54|language=en}} She worked as a cultural attaché at the American Embassy in Tehran from 1941 to 1947. During that time, Cook converted to Islam, and spent years on a personal project, editing and translating the Koran into English, with her own commentary.{{Cite news|date=1982-10-13|title=Nilla Cram Cook, 74; A Writer and Linguist|language=en-US|work=The New York Times|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1982/10/13/obituaries/nilla-cram-cook-74-a-writer-and-linguist.html|access-date=2020-09-17|issn=0362-4331}}{{Cite news|date=1945-03-18|title=Nila Cram Cook Working On New Version of Koran|pages=2|work=The Des Moines Register|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/59493069/nila-cram-cook-working-on-new-version/|access-date=2020-09-18|via=Newspapers.com}} She held a high position in Iran's Ministry of Education, oversaw film censorship,{{Cite news|last=Denato|first=Pat|date=1982-01-31|title=Notorious Ladies from Iowa's Past|pages=33|work=The Des Moines Register|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/59523059/notorious-ladies-from-iowas-pastpat/|access-date=2020-09-18|via=Newspapers.com}} and went on radio to read her translations of poetry. She helped build national theatre,{{Cite news|date=1948-01-31|title=Davenport Girl, Nila Cook, Once Follower of Ghandhi|pages=8|work=The Des Moines Register|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/59523560/davenport-girl-nila-cook-once/|access-date=2020-09-18|via=Newspapers.com}} ballet,{{Cite news|last=Crystal|first=Charlotte|date=1996-01-18|title=Dancing to Health|pages=32|work=Daily Press|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/59500361/dancing-to-healthcharlotte-crystal/|access-date=2020-09-18|via=Newspapers.com}} and opera programs in Iran in the 1940s.{{Cite journal|last=Cook|first=Nilla Cram|date=1949|title=The Theater and Ballet Arts of Iran|url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/4322114|journal=Middle East Journal|volume=3|issue=4|pages=406–420|jstor=4322114|issn=0026-3141}} She worked with a fellow American expatriate, dancer Xenia Zarina, in Iran.{{Cite news|date=1948-08-04|title=UNESCO May Miss Its Dancing Girls|pages=3|work=The Sydney Morning Herald|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/59534605/unesco-may-miss-its-dancing-girls/|access-date=2020-09-18|via=Newspapers.com}}
Cook took a renewed interest in Kashmir in 1954,{{Cite news|last=Weller|first=George|date=1954-03-25|title=Nila Cook Involved in India's Kashmir Issue|pages=15|work=The Daily Times|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/59523259/nila-cook-involved-in-indias-kashmir/|access-date=2020-09-18|via=Newspapers.com}} and compiled a book of translated poems, titled The Way of the Swan: Poems of Kashmir (1958).{{Cite web|last=Pandita|first=S. N.|date=August 28, 2015|title=Nilla Cram Cook : The Maverick Genius|url=http://earlytimesnews.com/newsdet.aspx?q=157480|access-date=2020-09-17|website=Early Times Newspaper Jammu Kashmir}}{{Cite book|last=Cook|first=Nilla Cram|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=lshHAAAAMAAJ|title=The Way of the Swan: Poems of Kashmir|date=1958|publisher=Asia Publishing House|language=en}}
Personal life
At age 18, in 1927, Nilla Cram Cook married Greek poet and government official Nikos Proestopoulos; they had a son, Serios Nicholas Proestopoulos (also known as Sirius Cook),{{Cite book|last=Senate|first=United States Congress|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Zy1kwIYiAb0C&q=Sirius+Cook+Proestopoulos&pg=RA91-PA2|title=Report on a Bill for the Relief of Sirius Proestopoulos|publisher=U.S. Government Printing Office|date=May 10, 1950|pages=1–2|language=en}} and divorced in 1932. She married again very briefly, to Albert Nathaniel Hutchins in 1934;{{Cite news|date=March 28, 1934|title=Nila Nagini Weds Chicago Writer|page=10|work=The Bombay Chronicle|url=https://archive.org/details/dli.granth.1308?q=Nila+Cram+Cook|access-date=September 17, 2020|via=Internet Archive}} that marriage was annulled.{{Cite news|title=Nila C. Cook's Romance Ends|page=6|work=Victoria Daily Times|url=https://archive.org/details/victoriadailytimes19340416/page/n5/mode/2up?q=Nila+Cram+Cook|access-date=September 17, 2020|via=Internet Archive}}{{Cite news|date=1934-09-22|title='GODDESS' SUES|pages=14|work=Mirror (Perth, WA : 1921 - 1956)|url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article75995738|access-date=2020-09-18|via=Trove}}
Cook toured in Greece with her son and cousin and their wives in 1965.{{Cite news|last=Weise|first=Mabel|date=1965-10-28|title=People You See and Hear About|pages=23|work=The Dispatch|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/59515712/people-you-see-and-hear-aboutmabel/|access-date=2020-09-18|via=Newspapers.com}} She died in 1982, aged 74 years, in Neunkirchen, Austria. Her gravesite is in Delphi, Greece, next to her father's grave there.{{Cite news|last=Longden|first=Tom|date=2006-05-21|title=Wanderer Cook Loved Adventure|pages=27|work=The Des Moines Register|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/59499824/wanderer-cook-loved-adventuretom/|access-date=2020-09-18|via=Newspapers.com}}
References
{{reflist}}
External links
- [https://digital.hagley.org/75360_00603 "Nila Cram Cook Takes First Flight"] (1934), photograph in the Lammot du Pont, Jr. collection of aeronautical photographs, Hagley Museum and Library in Delaware.
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Category:Writers from Davenport, Iowa
Category:American expatriates in India
Category:American expatriates in Greece
Category:American expatriates in Iran
Category:Converts to Hinduism from Christianity
Category:Converts to Islam from Hinduism
Category:American former Hindus