Ida Roland in memoriam is a short memorial volume by Richard Nikolaus von Coudenhove-Kalergi devoted to his wife, the actress Ida Roland. It is a personal tribute rather than a full-scale biography or a chronicle of her career: Coudenhove-Kalergi writes as a grieving husband and admirer, seeking to preserve the impression Roland made on him and to characterize her as both a person and an artist.
The portrait is warm, elegiac, and highly admiring. Coudenhove-Kalergi presents Roland as an exceptional, radiant figure whose warmth and generosity of spirit affected those around her. He regards her as a kind of female genius, even comparing her with Marie Curie, and praises her boundless capacity for love, her goodness, and her maternal nature. At the same time, he insists that she was difficult to reduce to a simple formula because her personality was made of contrasts that complemented rather than canceled one another. She had, in his account, many selves, existing side by side and in succession.
The memorial dwells on the force and singularity of her character. Coudenhove-Kalergi describes her as highly nervous yet also fearless and cool-headed; frank to the point of hurtfulness; hostile to embarrassment, hypocrisy, and half-measures; and possessed of an imperious, commanding nature. He stresses that she was born to rule and to lead, and that she was a perfectionist for whom only the best was good enough. Her artistic discipline is also part of the portrait, especially her highly developed speech technique and her sure feeling for language, which he valued as a stylistic compass.
The book thus combines personal recollection with a portrait of Roland’s artistic temperament. It honors her as an actress whose expressive powers were inseparable from her character, and as a companion whose memory the author wishes to fix in words. Its emphasis falls on personality, voice, and moral and emotional force rather than on a detailed record of productions or a critical assessment of individual roles. The result is a brief, intimate memorial marked by admiration, grief, and the attempt to capture a singular presence in language.
