Everyone Loves Pixie!

We may love her today, and she was well-loved in some ways by her close circle of friends — among them Bram Stoker (author of Dracula) and John Butler Yeats — yet she passed away in relative obscurity and poverty in 1951, her few belongings sold off to pay for her anonymous grave.

So how is it, today, that she is a virtual heroine to millions, an inspiration to the entire tarot community? She lived a grand life, but never enjoy her due fame. And, if her poems are an indication, she was lonely —

In cities large -- in country lane,
Around the world -- 'tis all the same;
Across the sea from shore to shore.
Alone -- alone, for evermore.

Poem by Pamela Colman Smith 

Pixie Never Gave Up

Pamela Colman Smith was a talented artist and illustrator. Her illustrations in the Waite-Smith tarot deck, by numbers the most popular tarot deck ever created, made her immortal. She was a lovely person according to correspondence from friends. She had a varied career in the theater, working along side the famous (infamous) Bram Stoker at the famous Lyceum theater under Sir Henry Irving. She illustrated many books, including Bram Stoker's last book. She published four of her own books. Yet she always struggled with obscurity. Even after Ride published the now famous Waite-Smith deck, she was barely acknowledged as its creator. Rider, the publisher, and A.E. Waite, who hired her, took all the credit. She was paid next to nothing.

What endears Pixie to many is her "never give up" attitude. It characterized her long life in poverty. It made her popular with the famous of her day, but never quite moved her to the spotlight.  She died, a poor woman, in 1951 at the age of 73. She remains, the mother of the modern day tarot deck.

Pixie Life Line

• 1878 — Pamela Colman Smith born in London, England, February 16
• 1878-88 — PCS grew up in England
• 1889-92 — At the age of 11, she moved to Jamaica
• 1893 — at 15 she enrolled in The Pratt Institute in Brooklyn New York
• 1895 — she meets Ellen Terry & Edith Craig from Lyceum Company
• 1896 — her mother dies
• 1897 — first exhibition in New York, reviewed in NY Time
• 1899 —published Golden Vanity/Green Bed; Widdicombe Fair; Annancy Stories, In Chimney Corners; she meets John Butler Yeats that summer but her father passes away in December
  
• 1900 — now 22, she sails for England with Lyceum Theatre group and moves in with Ellen Terry (actress) in London
• 1901 — at 23 she joins the Golden Dawn
• 1902-03 — has visions and makes art and works  with WB Yeats
• 1904 —  when Waite spins off the Holy Order of the Golden Dawn she stays with him
  
• 1905-8 — various books and art exhibits
• 1909 — now 31 Rider Waite Smith Tarot published with Key to the Tarot; she converts to Catholicism
• 1911 — Lair of the White Worm and Pictorial Key to the Tarot published with illustrations
  
• 1912 — friend Bram Stoker dies on April 20
• 1914 — at 36, WWI begins and Book of Friendly Giants published
• 1918 — November 11 WW1 ends
• 1928 — life-long friend Ellen Terry dies on July 21
• 1942 — AE Waite dies on May 19
• 1951 — Pamela passes away at 73, September 18 in England.