Ravished Armenia was the personal account by Aurora Mardiganian of the brutal rape and murder of the Armenian people by the forces of the old Ottoman Empire between 1915 and 1918. The book, also known as Auction of Souls, was first published in 1918, shortly after Aurora Mardiganian's arrival in the United States. It was subsequently filmed in 1919, and both the book and the movie created a considerable stir. The book has long been out of print, and the screen adaptation is one of the most sought-after of "lost" films. Ravished Armenia and the Story of Aurora Mardiganian reprints the original book in its entirety—the first time it has been available since the 1930s—and also reprints original documentation on the film. The introductory essay provides a brief historical overview, documents films dealing with the subject, and provides a full account of the making of the film and its reception. Slide is the first and only film historian to have tracked down Aurora Mardiganian, who died in 1994. He presents an extraordinary portrait of a young woman, terrorized in her own country, brought to the U.S. and mercilessly exploited by the film industry.

Product Description: From 1915 to 1923, the Ottoman Empire drove the Armenians from their ancestral homeland and slaughtered 1.5 million of them in the process. While there was an initial global outcry and a movement led by Woodrow Wilson to aid the “starving Armenians,” the promises to hold the perpetrators accountable were never fulfilled...read more