Nilla Cram Cook
Nilla Cram Cook was a remarkable American figure who played a pivotal role in the cultural modernization of Iran. Her diverse background, from her involvement with Mahatma Gandhi’s movement to her deep engagement with Middle Eastern arts, shaped her unique contributions to Iranian society.
Early Life and Diverse Pursuits
An American linguist, scholar, and arts impresario, she was the daughter of George Cram Cook, an author and founder of the Provincetown Playhouse. In her early 20s, she became a disciple of Mahatma Gandhi in 1931 and joined his movement for Indian independence, becoming one of the first Americans admitted to Gandhi's model colony. She traveled extensively to Turkey, Afghanistan, and Iran, researching Middle Eastern fine arts, literature, and history. She was married to Nicholas Proestopoulos, a Greek poet who served as Minister of Education (1927-1932). A later brief marriage to Albert N. Hutchins was annulled in 1936. She served as a correspondent for Liberty magazine and other newspapers in Europe from her arrival in 1939. Escaping the Nazis at the beginning of World War II, when she was residing in Greece, she fled first to Turkey and later to Iran. She was fluent in English, French, Greek, Persian, and Arabic. Converting to Islam, she completed her English translation of the Quran in 1945, a project that took her 12 years. She was also the author of My Road to India, published by Lee Furman Inc. in 1939.
Contributions to Iranian Arts and Culture
Appointed as the United States’ cultural attaché in Iran (1941-1947), she was simultaneously employed by the Iranian Ministry of Education and Propaganda as Director General of the Arts Department. She developed a deep engagement in Iranian culture and arts and authored The Bridge of Isfahan (published in 2013 by Burning Daylight), a love story set in Iran during the postwar 1940s. She founded the first Iranian internationally touring ballet company, "The Revival of the Ancient Arts and Culture of Iran," where Haideh and Nejad Ahmadzadeh began their professional dance careers. She also helped to form Iran’s first modern opera company. She left Iran in the early 1950s and never returned, passing away in Austria at the age of 74. Cram Cook is credited with the modernization movement that started in Iran in all aspects of the arts and Iranian society as a whole.