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Biography
Mary Cecelia Thedieck Ewald, 75, a poet, teacher and opera librettist who also gained fame when she asked Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein to release her captured son, died of cancer Feb. 5 at her home here.
Her published works include a book of poems, "Weapons Against Chaos," and the libretto for the opera, "The Birthday of the Infanta."
In one of her works, "Enchantment," Dartmouth professor Jeffrey Hart said, "she has written, in 13 lines, one of the great love poems of the 20th century."
Mrs. Ewald did not begin writing poetry seriously until one of her sons asked her to help him with a school poetry project.
In 1989, she was named Poet of the Year by the Hingham Poetry Society of Massachusetts.
A year later, she became more widely known for a letter she wrote to Saddam Hussein asking for the release of her youngest son, Thomas, then a 25-year-old banker from Greenwich. He had been captured by Iraqi forces to be used along with other captives as a "human shield" at a military installation near Baghdad.
"I have sent my youngest, well-loved son to work in an Arab country, hoping he would help peace between our cultures. . . . It seems unjust that I, who have given to you so generously, should have my son taken away in return," she wrote.
Days later, Thomas was freed and allowed to return home.
Mrs. Ewald, a native of Richmond, was a Phi Beta Kappa graduate of the College of William and Mary. She received a doctorate from Harvard University for her studies of philosopher Francis Bacon and the scientific method.
Over the years, she had been a teaching fellow at Radcliffe College and had served on the faculties of the universities of Maryland and New Hampshire and Wellesley College in Massachusetts.
She studied and translated 17 languages, including Old English and Old Icelandic.
Survivors include her husband, William, of Greenwich, a former Harvard professor who had been a speech writer for President Dwight D. Eisenhower; and three sons, William, of Philadelphia, Charles, of San Francisco, and Thomas, of Charlotte.
--https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/local/1997/02/09/librettist-poet-mary-ewald-dies/a6fa023f-9c74-4ecb-a999-6efcc3e58ba7/
There are no productions for this artist in the Season Schedule of Performances which currently only dates back to 1991.
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Artist Information
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