The Goddess Pose: The Audacious Life of Indra Devi, the Woman Who Helped Bring Yoga to the West (U)

"The incredible story of the woman--actress, dancer, yogi, globetrotter--who brought yoga to America and to much of the rest of the western world. Born Eugenia Peterson in early 20th century Russia, Indra Devi was a rebel from earliest childhood. In the1930s she fled to Berlin, and then--driven by her passion for yoga and a fascination with yogic philosophy (and Theosophy)--she journeyed to India, at a time when unaccompanied young European women were unheard of. In India she performed perhaps her greatest feat--convincing even the most recalcitrant yogis, from Krishnamurti to Krishnamacharya, to reveal to her the secrets of their art. She would go on to share what she learned with men and women around the world--teaching Gloria Swanson and Greta Garboin Hollywood, then moving to Mexico and later to Buenos Aires--helping to usher in the craze for yoga that continues unabated in the U.S. and throughout the world today. Written with vivid clarity, and describing the extraordinary spread and popularization of a philosophical movement, The Goddess Posebrings Indra Devi's little known but wholly remarkable story to life"--