Customer Reviews

Nancy Cunard: Heiress, Muse, Political Idealist

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Nancy Cunard knew a virtual who's who of the artistic world of the first half of the 20th century before getting embroiled in the Spanish Civil War and World War II. It is a fascinating story of the rich little girl who had everything and who would spend all she had to help the needy in wartime. A hellish haze of alcoholism and mental illness would eventually kill her in 1965. Ms Gordon has written a moderately long account (nearly 450 pages with notes and index) of her advocacy of the defendless and her love affairs with the famous. It is an interesting story for any reader who is familiar with both James Joyce and Langston Hughes, with both the Roaring Twenties and the Great Depression.

This is a brilliant, sensitive, thoroughly researched biography which is a model example of how such things should be done. The author writes of the First World War experiences in London as if she had personally lived through them. Her understanding of the complex and bizarre Nancy Cunard, of her weird mother, of her strange friends, of her insane promiscuity, of her serial preying upon the creative elite by means of 'genital consumption', of her impossible psychlogy, of the whole phantasmagoria which Nancy Cunard represented, are really a triumph of empathy and insight, as well as of organisation of material. Lois Gordon's ability to master large volumes of action and hysteria without flinching qualify her for a top military command.

If Lois Gordon was writing about a fictional character she could not have told a story of a more exciting person than Nancy Cunard. However, Nancy Cunard was indeed an individual who lived in the early part of last century whose exploits, altruism, and literary talent were extraordinary by any standards. She was a legendary beauty, with a great mind, who was extremely devoted to the disadvantaged people of the world and their struggles. This is an unusual and remarkable combination of qualities that is brilliantly depicted throughout this wonderful book. Simply, I could not put the book down once I had started reading. I can highly recommend it.

I just finished Lois Gordon's deeply moving tale of an unbelievably heroic, remarkable woman about whom I knew very little. I now feel I know the soul of Nancy Cunard, thanks to the author's wonderfully engaging, well-documented presentation. The book's fluent style and breadth of information are impressive. I agree with the majority here who have praised this fascinating biography. Buy this book, settle into your favorite chair, and prepare to meet the caring, complex, flawed, passionate woman that was Nancy Cunard.

This was a terrific read about an amazing woman. Although I knew of the Cunard Line, I did not know Nancy Cunard's name before seeing the New York Times book review. It is now a name that I will not forget. Nancy Cunard was certainly an extraordinary woman--beautiful, charismatic, altruistic, modest, creative, and in some ways tragic. She loved people (and how many men!) and fought for social justice with equal abandon. Indifferent when she was disinherited by her family because she had a black lover, she raged against racial and class discrimination. She literally took the clothes off her back to give to the poor. She was also unbelievably heroic, rescuing refugees from certain death during wartime.
The book is also fascinating in the way it weaves together wonderful reminders of the eras in which she lived and details about the people she knew. The book has amazingly pithy analyses of works like "The Lovesong of J. Alfred Prufrock," as well little-known (at least I didn't know) details about its author. T.S. Eliot not only struggled with problems of class and religion; he was also wretchedly self-conscious about his manliness and the proud author of porno poetry. (This is a detail the author leaves in a note, and although most people won't read the notes--and it's not necessary to--I found them fascinating). But most of all, this is one of those books you can't put down. It is a fascinating and beautifully written story.

i noticed a brief reference to ms. cunard while reading a biography of Alice Walker.

found this life story heroic,the era and her circle of acquaintances / affairs = an amazing cross section of cultural / literary history over first half of 20th century. her poetry and publishing, her anti colonial, anti-fascist work on the front lines - she is a new hero for me.

I am so glad i own the book and have talked to everyone i know about her story. it is shocking that such an accomplished woman was lost from history for such a long time.

enjoy and share with others... J /

A facinating look at a most interesting woman. Well ahead of her time. Also many insights to a span of recent history often neglected.

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An Intriguing Life Story, April 13, 2007

My preference as a reader has generally been for novels, particularly mysteries. However, the glowing critique of Gordon's "Nancy Cunard" on the front page of The Times Book Review was so compelling that my interest was piqued enough to read this book. It was a great decision.

Nancy Cunard was a fascinating person with a unique and exciting history brought to life today by an exceptional writer. How astonishing was Nancy Cunard's beauty, personalty, intellect and depth to have attracted and excited men with the greatest literary minds of her era, or of any era! How altruistic was she to have relinquished her fortune to relieve human suffering, wherever she found it!

I couldn't help wondering, as I was reading, why I never learned of her life until now. This book was worth the wait. It would make a great movie!

Marvin Rechter

Regrettably, this biography is seriously flawed, frankly a disgrace, in respect of Henry Crowder and throughout. There is hardly a page in the book without demonstrable error of fact, misrepresentation, unfounded speculation or garbled citation. Columbia University Press were twice alerted that there were problems when an advance proof fell into the present writer's hands two or three months before publication. The Press did not respond. Caroline Weber's New York Times review is foolish in the extreme. Anne Chisholm's 1979 biography remains indispensable. While Gordon has uncovered new material (not about Henry Crowder in which she is particularly deficient) she has not been able to make sense of it. The true story of Crowder is told in the book+CD Listening for Henry Crowder scheduled fall 2007.

Although readers must judge for themselves, it is incumbent upon someone or other who has studied some of the particulars to point out the book's shortcomings, which are drastic. The book's flamboyant style may appear to be "a good read". All the more reason to alert the general reader. That Cunard's life was replete with extraordinary events and relationships does not confer upon the biographer the right to play fast and loose. Such treatment may befit an exploitative Hollywood movie but not a literary documentation with academic credentials. It may be that few care. Neverthless . . . In respect of, for example, Crowder, by Cunard's admission the single most important man in her life, a good deal of the information the author needed had been available to her for some years in an exploratory article in a journal, which was also posted online. Either she chose to ignore it or she did not find it, though it was easy to find. Unfortunately, she does not even get the facts right from the sources she does use and her misdemeanors extend far beyond that particular subject. (Crowder does not even figure in a list of Cunard's friends in an interview with the author on the publisher's website, while another, with whom she had no relationship whatsoever, is proposed as a lover.)

In response to a comment on my original brief posting: I have mentioned my forthcoming book on Crowder's life (which will not receive wide distribution or review) and Anne Chisholm's earlier, easily available, elegant, sober, generous, decent biography of Cunard, which is grudgingly noted and casually mistreated by Gordon, in order to give general readers the opportunity to find other takes on Cunard, which they might otherwise miss, and so allow them to judge from a well-informed position.