Mariquita Platov

Mariquita Platov
A young white woman seated on grass outdoors, wearing light-colored clothing
Mariquita Villard (later Platov), from the 1927 yearbook of Bryn Mawr College
Born
Mariquita Serrano Villard

(1905-06-05)June 5, 1905
New York City, U.S.
DiedDecember 14, 2000(2000-12-14) (aged 95)
Philmont, New York, U.S.
EducationBrearley School
Alma materBryn Mawr College
Occupations
  • Writer
  • artist
  • pacifist
RelativesWilliam Lloyd Garrison (great-grandfather)
Mary J. Serrano (grandmother)
Fanny Garrison Villard (grandmother)
Oswald Garrison Villard (uncle)
Vincent Serrano (uncle)
Henry Serrano Villard (brother)
Fred Keating (first cousin)
Oswald Garrison Villard Jr. (first cousin)

Mariquita Serrano Villard Platov (June 5, 1905 – December 14, 2000) was an American writer, artist, educator, and pacifist, and a co-founder of the Orthodox Peace Fellowship.

Early life and education

Mariquita Serrano Villard was born in New York City, the daughter of railroad executive Harold Garrison Villard and Mariquita Serrano Villard, and the younger sister of ambassador Henry Serrano Villard. Her mother was born in Costa Rica. Her paternal grandmother was suffragist Fanny Garrison Villard, and her great-grandfather was abolitionist William Lloyd Garrison. Her maternal grandmother was Irish-born translator Mary J. Serrano. Her uncles included actor Vincent Serrano and editor Oswald Garrison Villard. She graduated from the Brearley School, and from Bryn Mawr College in 1927.[1][2]

Career

After college and a broken marriage engagement, Villard traveled in Europe with her mother, and was moved by the plight of Russian Orthodox Christians in Stalin's Soviet Union. In the 1930s, she became an Orthodox Christian. She taught school in New Jersey and in Boston in the 1950s.[3] She was poetry editor of an Orthodox children's magazine. She joined the Fellowship of Reconciliation in 1962, and co-founded the Orthodox Peace Fellowship in the mid-1960s.[4][5] In 1969, she was part of a small group of protesters held for questioning after they tried to distribute leaflets at West Point.[6] In 1973 she was surprised to be mentioned in connection with Richard Nixon's "enemies list", saying "I don't have an enemy in the world. Even Mr. Nixon is not an enemy of mine."[7]

Platov studied Buddhism with Sokei-an at the Buddhist Society of America.[8] She was a founding member of the Buddhist Peace Fellowship in 1979.[9] In her later years she exhibited her prints and lithographs,[10] and gave poetry readings in the Catskills.[11][12] She also placed anti-war advertisements in the local newspaper.[13]

Platov identified as a Christian Buddhist, and cited both Gandhi and Carl Jung as influences on her philosophy and her writings.[14]

In 1976, her musical play The Light of the Octave premiered at the Sonora Music Festival at Lexington House in Lexington, NY, with a cast that included Judith Martin, Mark Groubert, Julius Eastman and Jani Brenn. A year later, in June 1977, her play Who Invented Zero? was read at Sonora House in Haines Falls, NY, and on August 8, 1977, Lazarus' Cue premiered at Lexington Conservatory Theatre. The production was directed by Mary Hall with actors Steven Rotblatt, Kristin Joliff, Mary Baird, and Sands Hall.[15][16]

Publications

  • "Forest Song" (1935, poem)[17]
  • "To a Baby" (1960, poem)[18]
  • The Christmas Candle (1962, songs)[19]
  • Tease the Tiger's Nose (1965, poetry, illustrated by Dorothy Varian)
  • "Morris Milgram and his Mission: A true saga in dramatic form of a working venture in open cooperative housing" (1968, article)[20]
  • One Moment: An Easter Meditation; Thirty-six Sonnet Variation on a Paschal Theme (1971, poems)[21]
  • "Peacemaking Challenge of Today" (1973, article)[22]
  • Parable and Number: Essays and Poems (1973)[23]
  • From the Herb Garden of a Christian Buddhist (1973, poetry)[24]
  • "Some Thoughts Concerning Mary" (1974, article)[25]
  • "Simplicity Begins with Unity" (1974, article)[26]
  • "17 Sonnets" (1975, Tideline Press)
  • Keep it Dark: A Christmas Legend (1977, a play)
  • Eight Plays of Peace Creativity (plays)[27]
  • Seventeen Sonnets (poems)[27]
  • "Haitian Boat People Need U.S. Asylum" (1979, article)[28]
  • "Whispering Clouds" (1979, poem)[29]
  • Lazarus' Cue and Other One-Act Plays (1980)[30]

Personal life

Platov, known as "Quita" to her friends, was engaged to marry Louis Warren Hill Jr., grandson of financier James J. Hill, in 1927,[2] but they broke their engagement in 1928.[31][32] She married Henry Boris Platov in 1937; they divorced in 1950.[33] In 1962, she moved to a cabin on the mountaintop in East Jewett, where she lived "a hermit's life".[5] She died in 2000, at the age of 95, in Philmont, New York.[34]

References

  1. ^ Bryn Mawr College, Class of 1927 (1927 yearbook). via Internet Archive
  2. ^ a b "Romance of Great Railroads in Troth Of Mariquita Villard and L. W. Hill Jr". The New York Times. 1927-12-17. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2023-05-10.
  3. ^ "Metlars Lane Dwelling Sold by Schoolteacher". The Central New Jersey Home News. May 4, 1958. p. 30. Retrieved May 10, 2023 – via Newspapers.com.
  4. ^ Amanda Verdery Young. "Mariquita Platov". Women In Peace. Retrieved 2023-05-10.
  5. ^ a b Forest, Jim. (2003) "The History and Mission of the Orthodox Peace Fellowship" In Communion.
  6. ^ "8 Questioned at West Point". The Journal-News. March 19, 1969. p. 13. Retrieved May 10, 2023 – via Newspapers.com.
  7. ^ "Harold Hochschild is 'flattered' to be on enemies list". Saranac Lake Adirondack Daily Enterprise. December 21, 1973. p. 1. Retrieved May 11, 2023 – via Newspapers.com.
  8. ^ Stirling, Isabel (2006). The Life and Works of Ruth Fuller Sasaki, Zen Pioneer (PDF). Shoemaker & Hoard. p. 28.
  9. ^ Baroni, Helen J. (March 2014). "The System Stinks: Sources of Inspiration for the Buddhist Peace Fellowship", paper presented at the Numata Conference in Buddhist Studies, University of Hawai'i at Manoa; 8.
  10. ^ "Greene Co. Arts Group Slates Show at Gallery". Altamont Enterprise and Albany County Post. January 28, 1977. p. 8. Retrieved May 11, 2023 – via NewspaperArchive.com.
  11. ^ "Music Program is Given by Society". The Kingston Daily Freeman. April 12, 1965. p. 21. Retrieved May 10, 2023 – via Newspapers.com.
  12. ^ "First in a series of poetry readings slated at Catskill Gallery Saturday". Poughkeepsie Journal. January 15, 1983. p. 34. Retrieved May 10, 2023 – via Newspapers.com.
  13. ^ Platov, Mariquita (February 13, 1971). "How to Bring the POWs Home (advertisement)". The Kingston Daily Freeman. p. 18. Retrieved May 10, 2023 – via Newspapers.com.
  14. ^ Schuster, Hilde (July 1, 1976). "East Jewett Writer, Artist Follows the Path of Peace". The Catskill Daily Mail.
  15. ^ Platov, Mariquita (1980). Lazarus' cue, and other one-act plays. Stafford, VA: Dan River Press. ISBN 0-89754-012-3.
  16. ^ "To Read New Play at LCT". The Windham Journal. July 28, 1977.
  17. ^ Villard, Mariquita (July 1935). "Forest Song" (PDF). American Foreign Service Journal. 12 (7): 405.
  18. ^ Platov, Mariquita (January 2, 1960). "To a Baby". The Tablet. p. 21. Retrieved May 10, 2023 – via Newspapers.com.
  19. ^ Mariquita Platov (1962). A christmas candle. Torquil & Co.
  20. ^ Platov, Mariquita. "Morris Milgram and his Mission." Fellowship 34, no. 3 (1968): 24.
  21. ^ Platov, M., 1971. One Moment: An Easter Meditation, Thirty-six Sonnet Variations on a Paschal Theme. Plowshare Press.
  22. ^ Platov, Mariquita (March–April 1973). "Peacemaking Challenge of Today". WR News: 2.
  23. ^ Platov, Mariquita (1973). Parable and Number: Essays and Poems. Institute for Byzantine & Modern Greek Studies. ISBN 978-0-914744-25-2.
  24. ^ Platov, Mariquita (1973). From the Herb Garden of a Christian Buddhist. Cambridge Buddhist Association.
  25. ^ Platov, Mariquita (January 1974). "Some Thoughts Concerning Mary". The Word Magazine: 4 – via Al Moutran.
  26. ^ Platov, Mariquita. "Simplicity Begins with Unity." Fellowship 40, no. 4 (1974): 17.
  27. ^ a b Alternatives in print 1977-78 : catalogue of social change publications. San Francisco: New Glide. 1977. p. 127. ISBN 978-0-912078-49-6.
  28. ^ Platov, Mariquita. "Haitian Boat People Need US Asylum." Fellowship 45, no. 3 (1979): 19.
  29. ^ None (1980). Anthology of magazine verse and yearbook of American poetry. Beverly Hills, Calif.: Monitor Book Co. p. 325. ISBN 978-0-917734-04-5.
  30. ^ Platov, Mariquita (1980). Lazarus' Cue, and Other One-Act Plays. Stafford, VA: Dan River Press. ISBN 0-89754-012-3.
  31. ^ "Milestones". Time Magazine. 12 (1). July 2, 1928.
  32. ^ "Their Betrothal Broken; Miss Mariquita Villard and Louis W. Hill Jr. Are Not to Wed". The New York Times. 1928-06-23. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2023-05-11.
  33. ^ Contemporary Authors: First revision. Gale Research Company. 1969. p. 899.
  34. ^ "Obituary: Mariquita Platov". The Daily Mail. July 10, 2001. Retrieved 26 June 2024.