The Bercovici family was at the center of a circle that included such luminaries as Hemingway, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Brancusi, Paul Robeson, Melvyn Douglas, Mencken, Dreiser, Chaplin, Einstein, the Gershwins, Diego Rivera and John Reed. Konrad Bercovici (1881-1961) was an internationally acclaimed author of more than forty books, hundreds of short stories, articles and plays, including the original screenplay for Chaplin’s “The Great Dictator.” A script his daughter Mirel typed.
As a journalist for major newspapers and magazines, his family often accompanied him on his travels across the country and around the world. All of this had a profound effect on their art and lives. Konrad Bercovici’s wife was the late painter, sculptor and poet Naomi LiBrescu. Their daughter, artist and poet Mirel Bercovici, was still painting, as well as collaborating on a project about the family when she died, at the age of 93, just this past year. Mirel’s son and namesake of his grandfather, was the late painter Konrad. B. Abbott.
They are survived by Mirel’s daughter, Mirana Comstock, also a multi-field creative. In addition to exhibiting the family artwork, she is currently involved in a number of Bercovici projects:
• compiling Mirel and Naomi’s unpublished poetry • a book about the family legacy • editing previously unpublished work by Konrad Bercovici • editing work by Mirel’s late sister Rada Bercovici, including musical “Rendezvous” and children’s book “The Gypsy Tree”