Since, as André Breton once said,
"punctuality is the virtue of those who get bored"... I waited
for the sassy broadsides of Tracy Ryan Terhune and David Bret who,
always waiting for any reason to free themselves from their boring
lives and attack the work of Evelyn and myself, are always in prime
position waiting for the slightest excuse to ridicule us, offend us
and defame us.
I share what they say about me and I quote
verbatim the exhaustive description of my titles made by Bret:
"multi- lingual child star, lighting technician, Cordon Bleu
chef, puppeteer and Firemen's Muse". This is all true but Firemen's
Muse is too much. I only collaborated with the head quarters of the
firefighters of Turin, Asti, Rome and Bologna and with many of them I
became and still am a good friend.
As our book “Rudolph Valentino - In
English” came out, Tracy Ryan Terhune rushed to buy it, which I
thank him for. But the reason for his haste is clear... it was his desire to
publish, in the shortest possible time, what he he calls a "critique"... and be on time to diminish and defame our
work with the malicious intent to ruin our sales.
Terhune does not welcome a new book on
Valentino but complains we have not corrected several inaccuracies of De Recqueville; well I want to remind him here that I translated De
Recqueville's book but I did not write it. I have not written a
companion reading manual yet but feel I did a substantial effort in
footnoting for the reader.
I also point out that the book is
already extensively footnoted with the beauty of 391 footnotes which includes
those appearing in the original book and those included in the
appendices.
Regarding why I translated this book, I
refer to the first lines of my introduction:
I have been asked many times why I
chose to translate this book into English, which as far as historical
accuracy is concerned certainly has a few shortcomings. Despite this,
I consider De Recqueville more of an actual witness than a
biographer. She contacted those still living who knew Valentino
personally, from his brother Alberto to his French comrades René
Clair, Jacques Hébertot, Robert Florey, Yvonne Legeay and Paul Ivano
to even the chamber maids at the Plaza Athenée Hotel who fluffed
Valentino's pillows. Another of her intriguing contacts was Doctor
Howard Meeker, one of the many physicians who tried to save Valentino
and who mercifully closed his eyes. These contact's testimony forms
the true power of De Recqueville's book.
Despite any of my translation's mechanical imperfections, I am very proud of the book and I feel it is a
most worthy contribution to the legacy of Rudolph Valentino. Tracy
Terhune's attempt to destroy this book and all of our books proves he has
other motivations than to add to Valentino's history.
Terhune and his acolyte Bret, in my
opinion, are just angry that they can no longer lie about the content
of De Recqueville's book and no longer freely lie about many things. They throw their
stones but I am confident people are far wiser than Terhune and Bret believe. Those people interested in knowing more about
Valentino and not less, as Terhune would like it...they can judge for
themselves as to the intent and effort on my behalf. And they do not
need Tracy Terhune to try and censor what they should or should not
read about Valentino or anything else.
Jeanne De Recqueville was presented with the key
to Castellaneta for her noble work in the defense of the memory of Valentino... something which I think should be respected in this history. I hope everyone will read the new book and find many things to
learn. I say read, people read!! And enjoy!
Have a good day everyone,
Renato
