Maria Stona (born Marie Stonawski, married Marie Scholz; 1 December 1859 â 30 March 1944) was a German-Czech poet and writer. Her daughter was the sculptor Helen Zelezny-Scholz.
In TÃ Âebovice she led artistic salon. She drew into her circles many noticeable persons, world-famous artists, politicians and writers such as Georg Brandes, Georges Clemenceau, Berta von Suttner, Flinders Petrie, Stefan Zweig, being among her guests in her home the TÃ Âebovice (Strzebowitz) Castle.
Maria Stona corresponded regularly with Georg Brandes from 1899 to his death 1927. She died in 1944, during the World War II. Some of her books are available at The Royal Library in Copenhagen, which also holds some of her letters in the "Georg Brandes Arkivet".
Maria Stona was born Marie Stonawski on 1 December 1859 in Tà Âebovice, Austrian Silesia (now the Czech Republic). She was a daughter of Joseph Stonawski, who bought the Tà Âebovice Castle (German: Strebowitz) in 1859, and his wife Marie Prymus from SobÃÂà ¡ovice in Cieszyn Silesia. She used the first two syllables of her birth name, Stonawski, as her pseudonym Maria Stona.
In 1881, Maria married Dr. jur. Albert Scholz, a son of Alois Scholz (1821âÂÂ1883), the director of the steel works of VÃÂtkovice mining and metallurgical trade union in Moravia-Ostrava. The couple lived from 1881 to 1888 in Chropynàin Moravia, where their daughter Helen Zelezny-Scholz was born on 16 August 1882. The marriage to Albert Scholz lasted until 1899. Maria Stona most likely had a second marriage to the writer, editor and art critic Charles Erasmus Kleinert (1837âÂÂ1933). In 1933, Maria Stona published a tribute to his life: An Old Austrian - Charles Erasmus Kleinert. His life and his works were published by Adolf Drechsler, Opava in Silesia.
After the death of his father, Joseph took Maria Stonawski Scholz to Tà Âebovice and in Silesia, where the Tà Âebovice Castle and the surrounding park was their residence. At Tà Âebovice Castle, Maria Stona was the center of a literary circle. Landowner and Countess Marie Stonawská-Scholzová loved art. She produced poetry, stories, novels, and travel sketches under the pseudonym Maria Stona. After a short marriage, she was able to live independently thanks to having financial security. She actively participated in the cultural life of the town â she visited exhibits and the theatre, but mainly she supported artists. In this way the château in Tà Âebovice became a cultural centre where artists and the intelligentsia of various nations gathered. Stonawská-Scholzová bountifully hosted and supported local artists regardless of nationality, and eagerly introduced young artists to the public.
The list of important personalities who stayed at Tà Âebovice includes writer Baroness Marie von Ebner-Eschenbach, noted Austrian prose writer Stefan Zweig, the Nobel Peace Prize winner Bertha von Suttner, writer Subhas Chandra Bose doctor and writer Karl Schönherr, the writer and journalist Paul Keller, the Danish literary critic Georg Brandes, and personalities of political life. She encouraged young artists who belonged to which the Czech pianist and composer Ilja HurnÃÂk and others traveled for Eastern Europe, Southern France and Spain.
Her extensive literary heritage, included travelogues, poetry, often sentimental, short stories, novellas and novels. Maria Stona was one of the most important women writers of her time. They drew their psychological empathy from the surrounding world, as Russian troops had occupied Moravia and Silesia in 1945 and TÃ Âebovice Castle was lost as a family residence.
Maria Stona who died in 1944, wrote in German. Her volumes of poetry were translated into Czech by the novelist Helen Salichová after her death.