Ida Benfey, from an 1898 publication.

Ida Benfey Judd (died February 14, 1952) was an American educator, elocutionist and monologist, billed as "The American Storyteller".[1] She founded the Mark Twain Association, and was its first president.

Early life

Ida Benfey was born in Detroit, Michigan and raised in California.[2] She studied elocution at the Michigan State Normal School in Ypsilanti, Michigan. She graduated from the University of California in 1883.[3]

Career

Judd was a popular speaker at community events, schools, and in theaters, especially in New York City, where she was based, but also on national tours.[4] Of her interpretation of The Book of Job, a signature piece in her wide repertoire,[5] the Times noted that "Miss Benfey has taste, understanding, and uncommon powers of expression, and her new undertaking cannot fail to interest many persons."[6] She was also known to read works by women writers; an 1896 recital included texts by Mary E. Wilkins Freeman and Ruth McEnery Stuart, with both authors in the audience.[7] At the 1920 centennial commemoration of George Eliot held at a Columbia University, Judd performed scenes from The Mill on the Floss, accompanied by a trio of women musicians.[8] Les Misérables and A Tale of Two Cities were other popular texts for Benfey's performances.[1] She also told Chinese folk tales, recited Socrates, and read Mark Twain essays and stories.[9]

She taught public speaking and elocution at Teachers College, Columbia University; among her students was political strategist Belle Moskowitz.[10]

In 1926, Judd founded the Mark Twain Association, to promote the study and reading of Twain's work. She was the association's longtime president,[11] organizing contests, raising funds, and corresponding with writers and publications.[12] In the 1930s, she organized Great Literature Across the Footlights, to promote cultural literacy through dramatic presentation in prisons and reformatories and summer camps.[3][13]

Personal life

Ida Benfey married George W. Judd, a lawyer. She died in 1952, in her nineties (aged 93 years, according to her obituary in The New York Times), in Ossining, New York.[14] Her papers are archived at the New York Public Library.[3] Her Mark Twain Association was still meeting annually in New York City in 1990.[15]

References

  1. 1 2 "Miss Ida Benfey, The American Storyteller" (brochure, 1900-1910) in Traveling Culture: Circuit Chautauqua in the Twentieth Century (University of Iowa Libraries).
  2. ↑ What Women Can Earn: Occupations of Women and Their Compensation (Frederick A. Stokes 1899): 52-55.
  3. 1 2 3 Ida Benfey Judd papers, Billy Rose Theatre Division, The New York Public Library.
  4. ↑ Joseph Dana Miller, "Women Elocutionists" National Magazine (November 1900): 55.
  5. ↑ "Miss Ida Benfey" The Parisian (February 1898): 195-196.
  6. ↑ "Ida Benfey's Reading" New York Times (January 22, 1899).
  7. ↑ "The Public Readers" New York Times (February 5, 1896).
  8. ↑ "To Commemorate Eliot at Institute Tonight" Columbia Daily Spectator (February 6, 1920): 1.
  9. ↑ "Mrs. Judd Gives Recital" New York Times (March 9, 1931): 28.
  10. ↑ Elisabeth Israels Perry, Belle Moskowitz: Feminine Politics and the Exercise of Power in the Age of Alfred E. Smith (UPNE 1987): 5. ISBN 9781555534240
  11. ↑ "Mark Twain Group Honors Mrs. Judd" New York Times (March 10, 1935): N4.
  12. ↑ "Award Offered for Ten Best Quotations from Twain's Books" Stanford Daily (May 20, 1927): 6.
  13. ↑ Meyer Berger, "About New York" New York Times (December 1, 1939): 20.
  14. ↑ "Mrs. Ida Judd Dies; Noted Monologist" New York Times (February 15, 1952): 25.
  15. ↑ Andrew L. Yarrow, "Weekender Guide" New York Times (April 6, 1990).
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