Additional information
by John Becker (Author)
Rome in the 1950s celebrated the end of the war with a burst of creative energy. The Beckers made it their home and established a place in which writers, actors, painters met and were entertained by witty marionette shows, written by John Becker and designed, produced and directed by Virginia Campbell. Among their guests, and sometime participants in the productions, were Robert Graves, Leontyne Price, Aaron Copeland, Alice B. Toklas, Karen Blixen, Ingrid Bergman, Iris Tree, Lady Diana Cooper, Bill Weaver, Eugene Walter, Richard and Mickey Fleisher, Christopher Fry, Hume Cronyn and Jessica Tandy. Federico Fellini also showed up on occasion, and found inspiration for certain scenes in "La Dolce Vita". These witty, delicate plays are very much of their time and place but even now, sixty years after they were first performed, they retain sufficient power to charm any reader.
Author Biography
JOHN BECKER (1901- 1982) after graduating from Harvard, Becker had a column in the Chicago Daily News. He worked in Chicago for the Institute for Juvenile Research and for a time in the Illinois State Penitentiary. In 1929 he opened the John Becker Gallery in New York, giving shows to many artists who have since become household names, among them Léger, Picasso, Arp, Le Corbusier and Noguchi. Before the war, when he was Public Relations Advisor for the Council against Intolerance in America, he published his first book, The Negro in American Life (1944). During the war he was in Italy with the American Red Cross. He afterwards settled with his family in Rome, and later lived in Vienna and in London. His published work includes collections of short stories: After Geneva (1975), Jamie (1981), Parting Gift (1984);three children's books: Melindy's Medal with Georgine Faulkner (1945), New Feathers for the Old Goose (1956), Near-Tragedy at the Waterfall (1964) and Seven Little Rabbits (2007).
