Lydia Lopokova.

London, UK Weidenfeld and Nicolson, 1983. Hardcover First Edition [1983], unstated. Very Good+ in Very Good+ DJ: Both book and DJ show indications of very careful use. The Book shows just a touch of crimping at the head of the backsstrip; former owner's name and address blindstamped at the top of the front free endpaper; the binding shows the slightest lean, while remaining pefectly secure; the text is clean. The DJ shows only a touch of wear to the extremities, with some scuffing to the front corner tips: mild overall rubbing; the price is unclipped. Overall, remains a structurally sound, tightly bound copy, showing little wear in a handsome, if imperfect, DJ. NOT a Remainder, Book-Club, or Ex-Library. 8vo. 238pp. Twenty-four pages with 52 duotone illustrations. First Edition [1983], unstated. Hardback with DJ. Lydia Lopokova, Baroness Keynes (1892–1981) was a famous Russian ballerina during the early 20th century. She is known also as Lady Keynes, the wife of the economist John Maynard Keynes. Lydia trained at the Imperial Ballet School, where she almost immediately became a star pupil. "She responded instinctively to the expressive choreography of Mikhail Fokine, his rebellion against the stiff academicism of the classical style, and her chance came when she was chosen to join the Ballets Russes... on their European tour in 1910.... Diaghilev knocked a year off her age and promoted her as a child star." She stayed with the ballet only briefly, knowing that she had little future in Russia ("she was the wrong size and shape for the grand roles and there were already plenty of prima ballerinas in St. Petersburg"), she accepted an American offer of £16,000 per month and after the summer tour left for the United States, where she remained for six years, enjoying tremendous success and legally changing her name to Lopokova in April 1914. In the midst of a wartime European tour, she had an on-off affair with Igor Stravinsky, who was married." In America she was basically a novelty act, and she rejoined Diaghilev in 1916, dancing with the Ballets Russes, and her former partner Vaslav Nijinsky, in New York and later in London. In 1921, Diaghilev staged a lavish production of The Sleeping Beauty in which Lopokova danced the Lilac Fairy and Princess Aurora. The production was a flop, but it brought her to the attention of John Maynard Keynes. He "sat every night in the stalls, enchanted by Lydia as the Lilac Fairy casting spells over the cradle." The two soon became lovers, and they were married in 1925.