We all tend to view biographies and docos about people's lives through the sifting mechanism of our own lives, our own belief and value systems and our own experiences. Here is my personal 'take' on the doco on Pamela Harriman which was seen just this week(21/6/07) in Australia. My post is in the form of a prose-poem.

COURTESAN?

As I was heading into the last five years of my life as a full-time teacher in the years 1994 to 1999, two biographies of the life of Pamela Harriman appeared(1994, 1996). A film was released and a TV doco about her life both came out in the USA(1998) just six months before I left classrooms forever. Tonight I saw the doco Churchill’s Girl released in Australia on ABC TV; it had been on Channel 4 in the UK in November 2006 I understand. I write this prose-poem about the life of one of history’s greatest courtesans and, arguably, modern history’s, the twentieth century’s, greatest courtesan next to Clare Boothe Luce. I should quality my words, I suppose, not being a particular authority on the subject of courtesans in modern or ancient history. After reading Blair Schulman’s fine article at the Divas internet site, he may be right: calling Harriman a courtesan may be just a “cheap and easy answer,” a simplistic explanation, a sort of psychological reductionism, an oversimplified analysis of a woman with an incredible life story and many talents. -Ron Price with thanks to ABC TV, 8:35-9:30, 21 June 2007 and Blair Schulman, “Pamela Churchill Harriman,” Divas Internet Site, 21 June 2007.
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I first came across the term
courtesan while teaching
ancient Greek history in my
last years in the classroom...

And Pamela Harriman, I confess,
I had never heard of until tonight,
as this solstice passed into history
on a cold Tasmanian winter night.

A glittering jewel adorning the veneer
of high politics with a pervasive and
exploding sexuality, patina of wit and
charm-heavyweight champ of courtesans.

Right at the start of our Seven Year Plan(1)
she began--at 16--to wow both woman & man
and came running all her life. O Pamela!!
Too bad you did not write your memoirs;
we might get closer to you now gone far
beyond this mortal coil, perchance to dream.

On time’s long road,in 1992/3,perhaps your
biggest year getting a President elected;
then you were off to France as our Holy
Year ended in May of 1993(2), completely
passing you by, Pamela—you missed it all—
the most precious Being ever to draw breath
on this planet and at that high water mark in
our history you were enmeshed in politics,
power, prestige and wealth as you always
had been with much success—you were the best,
Pamela, I’ve got to hand it to you, the best.

I wish you well in Shelley’s Undiscovered
Country: has it continued for you in these
last 10 years in a land of lights? Has it?

(1) 1936/7
(2) Pamela Harriman began her role of Ambassador to France in May 1993 as the Baha’i Holy Year ended in May 1993.

Ron Price
22 June 2007
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That's all folks!