Description

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Russian painter, explorer, and mystic Nicholas Roerich (1874–1947) ranks as one of the twentieth century’s great enigmas. Despite mystery and scandal, he left a deep, if understudied, cultural imprint on Russia, Europe, India, and America. As a painter and set designer Roerich was a key figure in Russian art. He became a major player in Diaghilev’s Ballets Russes, and with Igor Stravinsky he cocreated The Rite of Spring, a landmark work in the emergence of artistic modernity. His art, his adventures, and his peace activism earned the friendship and admiration of such diverse luminaries as Albert Einstein, Eleanor Roosevelt, H. G. Wells, Jawaharlal Nehru, Raisa Gorbacheva, and H. P. Lovecraft.

But the artist also had a darker side. Stravinsky once said of Roerich that “he ought to have been a mystic or a spy.”  He was certainly the former and close enough to the latter to blur any distinction. His travels to Asia, supposedly motivated by artistic interests and archaeological research, were in fact covert attempts to create a pan-Buddhist state encompassing Siberia, Mongolia, and Tibet. His activities in America touched Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s cabinet with scandal and, behind the scenes, affected the course of three US presidential elections.

In his lifetime, Roerich baffled foreign affairs ministries and intelligence services in half a dozen countries. He persuaded thousands that he was a humanitarian and divinely inspired thinker—but convinced just as many that he was a fraud or a madman. His story reads like an epic work of fiction and is all the more remarkable for being true. John McCannon’s engaging and scrupulously researched narrative moves beyond traditional perceptions of Roerich as a saint or a villain to show that he was, in many ways, both in equal measure.

About the Author

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John McCannon is assistant professor of history at Southern New Hampshire University and the author of Red Arctic: Polar Exploration and the Myth of the North in the Soviet Union, 1932–1939.

Praise For…

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“Beautifully written and enormously entertaining, this definitive biography of famed Russian artist-archeologist-explorer-mystic Nicholas Roerich opens new ways of viewing the history of the twentieth century on three continents.  With archival depth, John McCannon reveals the multimedia splendor of the ballet The Rite of Spring, adventures in the mountains of Buddhist Eurasia, cult psychology, and the high-stakes politics of dying empires.” —Marjorie Mandelstam Balzer, editor of Anthropology and Archeology of Eurasia

“As Vladimir Putin urges Russia to undertake a geopolitical ‘Turn to the East,’ John McCannon’s masterful biography of Nicholas Roerich reminds us how the image of Asia and its relationship to Russia has long been at the center of Russian cultural history. Roerich’s exceptional artistic talents combined with a deep commitment to occult spiritualism, a rolodex of celebrity friends, and a flair for international political intrigue to make him one of the most enigmatic representatives of the Russian emigration. As a revealing counterpoint to the more familiar ideology of Eurasianism, McCannon explores how Roerich negotiated the Russian ambivalence between self-identification with the East as opposed to an ‘Othering’ of the Orient as a source of exotic but foreign spirituality and wisdom.” —Mark Bassin, Södertörn University

"Reading McCannon’s book, one cannot help but struck by the vitality, distinctiveness, determination, and particularity of the Roerichs—they gaze at you and beckon to you, clamoring for your attention"--The Russian Review

“McCannon appraises misconceptions in existing scholarship throughout. . . offering the most complete account to date of the artist’s life, from his artistic success in Saint Petersburg to his later efforts to influence politics across continents. The Artist Who Would Be King is an invaluable resource for readers interested in a comprehensive account of Roerich’s life, from his celebrated artworks to questionable politics."
—H-Net Reviews