Anne Chisholm (1) (1940–)

I read this book because it tied in to my recent interest in the Bright Young Things. Found it also connected to the Harlem Renaissance and the Spanish Civil War, two other threads I am pursuing through my library. Nancy Cunard had enormous intellectual energy and tried her hand at poetry, journalism, and running a small press. She was committed to Black civil rights and anti-fascism. But her record of actual achievement is slight. She is chiefly remembered by association with an impressive show more list of contemporary writers and artists. Chisholm documents her life with reference to a wide range of original sources. She gives Cunard credit where credit is due without attempting to minimise or explain, let alone justify, Cunard’s many self-destructive choices. I am surprised that further biographies of Cunard have apparently been thought necessary. Well-written as this book was the story is ultimately very depressing as Cunard descends into isolation and alcoholic paranoia. show less

A well-written, interesting biography of a remarkable diarist (always a favorite genre of mine), editor, translator and member of the Bloomsbury circle who continued working at her desk until her death at 104. She married Carrington's husband, Ralph Partridge, and became part of that select artistic, intellectual group surround Lytton Strachey, writing, reviewing and traveling and always discussing. I enjoyed the book immensely and am now equally taken with her diaries, borrowed from a friend.

A well-written, interesting biography of a remarkable diarist (always a favorite genre of mine), editor, translator and member of the Bloomsbury circle who continued working at her desk until her death at 104. She married Carrington's husband, Ralph Partridge, and became part of that select artistic, intellectual group surround Lytton Strachey, writing, reviewing and traveling and always discussing. I enjoyed the book immensely and am now equally taken with her diaries, borrowed from a friend.

I had a grand-father-in-law once who was a contemporary of Nancy. He knew some of the personalities mentioned in this biography (Richard Aldington, Roy Campbell). As a contemporary, he embraced fascism and antisemitism, while Nancy was fervently communist. Both set up private presses in France; and both displayed the same personality irregularities that would all of a sudden produce violent argument and invective sprayed all over the place. Both displayed persecution traits that they traced show more to shadowy forces (CIA and Home Office).
And sadly, they both ended their days alone, distressed, invariably pissed. Those who remained of their friends, had got old alongside them, and they could not manage, or tolerate any longer, their mental decline and shambled existence.
A very interesting biography about a woman who lived full-throttle when the going was good. show less