Lois Gordon

NANCY CUNARD

Heiress, Muse, Political Idealist

Columbia

University

Press •

New York Contents

List of Illustrations ix Preface xi

Acknowledgments xv

1 Golden Girl 1

2 Coming of Age During a Revolution in the Arts 20

3 Counterpoint of War in London 51

4 Postwar Breakdown 71

5 Return to the World in Paris 90

6 Reluctant Icon 125

7 Nancy as Publisher 140

8 Prelude to Negro 156 9 Negro 181

10 Nancy as Journalist: Scottsboro, Ethiopia, Spain 196

11 On the Front Lines in the Spanish Civil War 220 12 Exposing the Concentration Camps After Franco's Victory 13 Exile and Resistance in World War II 269

14 Surviving Reanville 300

15 Escaping La Mothe 322

16 The Last Great Glare 343

Epilogue 372

Notes 377

Index 429 Illustrations

Following page 70 1. Nancy, holding Buster

2. Nevill Holt

3. Irish patriot Robert Emmet, Nancy's "great-granduncle"

4. Maud and Bache Cunard

5. Nancy, at school 6.

7. The menu of the Eiffel Tower 8. , self-portrait

9. Wyndham Lewis

xo. Blast, the voice of Vorticism

11. Edward, Prince of Wales

12. Ezra Pound

13. T.S.Eliot

14. Virginia Woolf 15. Nancy and her friends volunteer for war charity 16. Nancy in a tableau vivant at a war-bond event

17. The announcement of Nancy's engagement 18. Sydney Fairbairn, Nancy's husband

19. Outlaws is published

Following page 124 20. Nancy and Tristan Tzara at a ball in Paris, as photographed by

21. Louis Aragon

22. Janet Flanner

23. Solita Solano

24. Kay Boyle

25. Aldous Huxley 26. William Carlos Williams

27. Constantin Brancusi 28. Nancy models a coat designed by Sonia Delauney, as photographed by Curtis Moffat

29. Nancy, a fashion icon of the 1920s, as photographed by Barbara Ker-Seymer 30. Nancy, as photographed by Man Ray 31. Nancy, as photographed by 32. John Banting, portrait of Nancy 33. Constantin Brancusi, Jeune Fille sophistiquee and The White Negress 34. Oskar Kokoschka, Painting of

35. Manuel Ortiz de Zarate, Nancy as a madonna 36. Eugene McCown, Portrait of Nancy Cunard 37. Alvaro Guevara, portrait of Nancy 38. Wyndham Lewis, drawing of Nancy 39. Nancy, as photographed by Curtis Moffat

Following page 180

40. Nancy in Reanville

41. Working the Mathieu press 42. Relaxing with Tristan Tzara 43. African objects displayed in an elegant cabinet 44. A sampling of Nancy's bracelets 45. Henry Crowder 46. Henry-Music, published by the Hours Press Press 47. coverage in New York as Nancy prepares Negro 48. Front-page coverage continues 49. Langston Hughes 50. An illustration from Negro The Scottsboro 51. boys, from Nancys essay in Negro

Following page 268 52. An invitation to authors to "Take Sides" of 53. Nancy's snapshot soldiers in Franco's army 54. Nancy's three snapshots of soldiers in the Republican forces 55. Pablo Neruda 56. Nancy, at fifly-two 57. Bracelets, a part of Nancy's everyday dress 58. Henry Moore 59. Pablo Casals 60. Samuel Beckett 61. Nancy, ill, visiting friends 62. Nancy, flirting with a young Spanish boyfriend S, C. 63. Harrison, portrait of George Moore, Nancy's most cherished possession x • Illustrations