Edith Durham

Mary Edith Durham ( born December 8, 1863 in London, † November 15, 1944 ibid ) was a British Balkan travelers, illustrator and writer.

Life

Mary Edith Durham was born as the first of nine children of the English doctor to Queen Victoria, Arthur Edward Durham, and one originating from Scotland Mother in London. After the completion of the Royal Academy of Arts, she made illustrations for books at the University of Cambridge. Exhausted from caring for their seriously ill mother, she drove her doctor's advice to Montenegro. There, Durham discovered her love of writing and traveling. Over the next twenty years she traveled among other things Albania, Bosnia, Serbia, Macedonia and Dalmatia. Your travelogue High Albania on their expeditions to the northern Albanian mountains, which was still almost unknown territory until then, is regarded as her most famous work.

The British developed in the course of their numerous visits to an informed expert on the region. For British newspapers they wrote reports and soon political commentary about the Balkans and became a close confidant of the Montenegrin King Nikola I Petrović Njegoš. During the Balkan Wars, they also strove for the suffering civilian population. Later she took repeated the word for the interests of the Albanians, as these sought to gain independence.

Works (selection)

Honor

In her honor, was named a main thoroughfare in downtown Shkodras in northern Albania in Rruga Edith Durham. On Qafa e Thores in the Albanian Alps, the Queen of the Highlanders ( Mbretëresha Malësoreve e ) a monument was erected.