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Negro Anthology
An ambitious anthology undertaken by Cunard in 1931 to document the history, culture, and politics of the black race. The 855 page anthology contains 250 articles written by 150 contributors on subjects including ethnography, linguistics, poetry, music, artist and entertainers, history, and politics. The contributors include activists, intellectuals, artists, writers, and ethnographers, both black and white.
855 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 1934
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About the author
Nancy Cunard
29 books28 followersNancy Clara Cunard was a writer, heiress and political activist. She was born into the British upper class but strongly rejected her family's values, devoting much of her life to fighting racism and fascism. She became a muse to some of the 20th century's most distinguished writers and artists, including Wyndham Lewis, Aldous Huxley, Tristan Tzara, Ezra Pound and Louis Aragon, who were among her lovers, Ernest Hemingway, James Joyce, Langston Hughes, Man Ray, and William Carlos Williams.
She moved to Paris in the 1920's, where she became involved with literary Modernism, Surrealists and Dada. In 1928 she set up the Hours Press. Cunard wanted to support experimental poetry and provide a higher-paying market for young writers; her inherited wealth allowed her to take financial risks that other publishers could not. Hours Press became known for its beautiful book designs and high-quality production. It brought out the first separately published work of Samuel Beckett, and also Ezra Pound's Draft of XXX Cantos. Cunard published old friends like George Moore, Norman Douglas, Roy Campbell, Harold Acton, Brian Howard, and Robert Carlton Brown.
In 1928 she began a relationship with Henry Crowder, an African-American jazz musician. She became an activist in matters concerning racial politics and civil rights in the USA. In 1934 she edited the massive Negro Anthology, collecting poetry, fiction, and non-fiction primarily by African-American writers. In the mid-1930s she took up the anti-fascist fight as well, writing about Mussolini's annexation of Ethiopia and the Spanish Civil War. During World War II, Cunard worked, to the point of physical exhaustion, as a translator in London on behalf of the French Resistance.
In later years, Cunard suffered from mental illness and poor health, worsened by alcoholism, poverty, and self-destructive behaviour. She was committed to a mental hospital after a fight with London police; but, after her release, her health declined even further. In 1965, she was found penniless on the streets, her weight having dropped to 60 pounds. She was taken to the Hôpital Cochin in Paris where she died two days later.
She moved to Paris in the 1920's, where she became involved with literary Modernism, Surrealists and Dada. In 1928 she set up the Hours Press. Cunard wanted to support experimental poetry and provide a higher-paying market for young writers; her inherited wealth allowed her to take financial risks that other publishers could not. Hours Press became known for its beautiful book designs and high-quality production. It brought out the first separately published work of Samuel Beckett, and also Ezra Pound's Draft of XXX Cantos. Cunard published old friends like George Moore, Norman Douglas, Roy Campbell, Harold Acton, Brian Howard, and Robert Carlton Brown.
In 1928 she began a relationship with Henry Crowder, an African-American jazz musician. She became an activist in matters concerning racial politics and civil rights in the USA. In 1934 she edited the massive Negro Anthology, collecting poetry, fiction, and non-fiction primarily by African-American writers. In the mid-1930s she took up the anti-fascist fight as well, writing about Mussolini's annexation of Ethiopia and the Spanish Civil War. During World War II, Cunard worked, to the point of physical exhaustion, as a translator in London on behalf of the French Resistance.
In later years, Cunard suffered from mental illness and poor health, worsened by alcoholism, poverty, and self-destructive behaviour. She was committed to a mental hospital after a fight with London police; but, after her release, her health declined even further. In 1965, she was found penniless on the streets, her weight having dropped to 60 pounds. She was taken to the Hôpital Cochin in Paris where she died two days later.
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November 1, 2015
Nancy Cunard is one of my personal heroes and, as she is pretty much unknown, here is a brief bio I stole from somewhere online:
Born in 1896, Nancy Clara Cunard was the only child of the middle aged English baronet Sir Bache Cunard and his young American wife Maud Alice Burke. Though raised largely by servants and governesses, Nancy was not excluded when her mother, filling her role as a society hostess, filled the house with the most prominent writers, artists, musicians, and politicians of the day. A special friend of her mother, George Moore, took a particular interest in Nancy, encouraging her education and interest in literature and poetry.
When Nancy was fourteen, her mother left Sir Bache, and taking Nancy, established a separate residence in London. Nancy attended private schools in London, Germany, and Paris, where she became friends with Iris Tree, Dianna Manners, Osbert Sitwell, Augustus John, and Ezra Pound. In 1914, referring to themselves as the "Corrupt Coterie", the group spent evenings in Parisian cafes discussing politics and poetry rather than attending to the coventional social milieu. About this time Nancy also began writing poetry, and though not an exceptional poet, published several poems in 1915 and 1916.
In 1916, Nancy had returned to London from school and became engaged to Sydney Fairbairn, much to the surprise of her family and friends. Fairbairn, while a socially acceptable young man, was very conventional, especially when compared to Nancy's usual choice of companions. The marriage ended in a formal separation after about 20 months, though the divorce was not final until 1925.
In 1920 Cunard moved to Paris where she became associated with the Dada and Modernist movements, and though she never formally joined, the Communist party. It is generally agreed that at this point in her life Cunard developed a strong dependence on alcohol and she may have experimented with other drugs. She also published her first volumes of poetry, starting with Outlaws in 1921, followed by Sublunary (1923), and Parallax (1925).
1927 found Cunard moving into an old farmhouse in Reanville, outside Paris, and setting up the Hours Press. Here she printed works by new and established writers, including Ezra Pound, Norman Douglas, Laura Riding, and Samuel Beckett. In 1928 Cunard met and became involved with Henry Crowder, a black American jazz musician playing with a band in a local night club. Through Crowder, Cunard became aware of the American civil rights movement. Over the next several years Cunard worked on an anthology (“Negro”) which was meant to create a record of the history of blacks in America. She solicited contributions for the volume from black and white artists in America and Europe and in 1934 to moderate fanfare and some controversy, Negro was published at her own expense. Organized mostly geographically, more than half of the book consists of pieces from the United States, with substantive sections devoted to Europe, the West Indies, South America and Africa. Contributors represented a dazzling array of Black and white literary figures, including Zora Neale Hurston, Langston Hughes, W.E.B Du Bois, Theodore Dreiser, William Carlos Williams, Josephine Herbst, Sterling Brown, Countee Cullen, George Padmore, Jomo Kenyatta, James Ford, George Antheil, Kenneth Macpherson, Ezra Pound, Louis Zokofsky, Walter White and Samuel Beckett.
Cunard took a strong interest in other civil rights issues for the rest of her life. She was a free-lance correspondent in Spain during the Spanish Civil War and then agitated for better treatment for the Spanish refugees in France after Franco's forces had prevailed. She traveled widely in South America, the Caribbean, and Tunisia, writing about the effects of colonialism as she went, and she frequently raised the issue of the color bar in her home country of England.
After World War II, Cunard traveled extensively and almost constantly. Her farmhouse in Reanville had been looted and vandalized during the Occupation and, because much of the damage had been done by locals, she did not feel able to return. She wrote memoirs of Norman Douglas and George Moore which were well received, and visited her friends. Deteriorating health, both physical and mental, caused her to alienate even her oldest and closest friends so that she died alone in a Parisian charity hospital in 1965.
**************
From one of the many many similar letters Nancy received:
”You may deceive people abroad but you can’t deceive the American public. We know why you are a nigger lover. One good thing, you are hastening the founding of a society to combat degenerate whites and their negro associates. You are truly a disgrace to your family, you are a disgrace to your race.”
From some of the reviews and comments from the African-American community:
“the peoples of Negro blood everywhere owe you a debt of gratitude. No one of us has been able to put within the covers of a book so much for our defense. With such staunch friends our cause with that of humanity can not be lost. “
And, in reference to its placing of Communism as of vital importance to the struggle:
“
About NEGRO. I took it to town with me one week or so ago. I made the usual calls. ILD, WIR, NSL, Musicians League, John Reed Club, etc. In each place in turn, comrades swooped down on the book. And all work ceased while the pages were thumbed while the workers mobbed around from the first page to the last. Dozens of them bid to borrow it. Comments were frequent. Some criticisms- but more, much more enthusiastic praise. Said one: That Cunard dame achieved a United Front with all the bastards, the thing the C.I hasn’t even had a smell at. Just listen to the DuBois lullaby in juxtaposition with the militant awakening martial tune of Communism- Ford, Amis, Gordon and the others. She’s got em booked for like alright. In black and white too.”
I think those contrasts tell you pretty much all you need to know.
This is an exceptionally important work, and one which is sadly out of print and hard to find for reasonable prices – please check if your library has a copy and go get it out.
It is not perfect by modern standards in terms of its views on race, but this is to be expected. It does, however, place an emphasis on issues of race and gender that were not explored in the mainstream for another 50 years.
*******
My earlier comments:
Finally, after 7 months of searching, I have a copy of this legendary anthology from the 30s that, even thought it was re-printed more recently, is still OUP and impossible to find. It is incredible and HUGE:
with normal sized book for reference...
And look at what is inside (including a Beckett translation of a poem on Louis Armstrong)!
Born in 1896, Nancy Clara Cunard was the only child of the middle aged English baronet Sir Bache Cunard and his young American wife Maud Alice Burke. Though raised largely by servants and governesses, Nancy was not excluded when her mother, filling her role as a society hostess, filled the house with the most prominent writers, artists, musicians, and politicians of the day. A special friend of her mother, George Moore, took a particular interest in Nancy, encouraging her education and interest in literature and poetry.
When Nancy was fourteen, her mother left Sir Bache, and taking Nancy, established a separate residence in London. Nancy attended private schools in London, Germany, and Paris, where she became friends with Iris Tree, Dianna Manners, Osbert Sitwell, Augustus John, and Ezra Pound. In 1914, referring to themselves as the "Corrupt Coterie", the group spent evenings in Parisian cafes discussing politics and poetry rather than attending to the coventional social milieu. About this time Nancy also began writing poetry, and though not an exceptional poet, published several poems in 1915 and 1916.
In 1916, Nancy had returned to London from school and became engaged to Sydney Fairbairn, much to the surprise of her family and friends. Fairbairn, while a socially acceptable young man, was very conventional, especially when compared to Nancy's usual choice of companions. The marriage ended in a formal separation after about 20 months, though the divorce was not final until 1925.
In 1920 Cunard moved to Paris where she became associated with the Dada and Modernist movements, and though she never formally joined, the Communist party. It is generally agreed that at this point in her life Cunard developed a strong dependence on alcohol and she may have experimented with other drugs. She also published her first volumes of poetry, starting with Outlaws in 1921, followed by Sublunary (1923), and Parallax (1925).
1927 found Cunard moving into an old farmhouse in Reanville, outside Paris, and setting up the Hours Press. Here she printed works by new and established writers, including Ezra Pound, Norman Douglas, Laura Riding, and Samuel Beckett. In 1928 Cunard met and became involved with Henry Crowder, a black American jazz musician playing with a band in a local night club. Through Crowder, Cunard became aware of the American civil rights movement. Over the next several years Cunard worked on an anthology (“Negro”) which was meant to create a record of the history of blacks in America. She solicited contributions for the volume from black and white artists in America and Europe and in 1934 to moderate fanfare and some controversy, Negro was published at her own expense. Organized mostly geographically, more than half of the book consists of pieces from the United States, with substantive sections devoted to Europe, the West Indies, South America and Africa. Contributors represented a dazzling array of Black and white literary figures, including Zora Neale Hurston, Langston Hughes, W.E.B Du Bois, Theodore Dreiser, William Carlos Williams, Josephine Herbst, Sterling Brown, Countee Cullen, George Padmore, Jomo Kenyatta, James Ford, George Antheil, Kenneth Macpherson, Ezra Pound, Louis Zokofsky, Walter White and Samuel Beckett.
Cunard took a strong interest in other civil rights issues for the rest of her life. She was a free-lance correspondent in Spain during the Spanish Civil War and then agitated for better treatment for the Spanish refugees in France after Franco's forces had prevailed. She traveled widely in South America, the Caribbean, and Tunisia, writing about the effects of colonialism as she went, and she frequently raised the issue of the color bar in her home country of England.
After World War II, Cunard traveled extensively and almost constantly. Her farmhouse in Reanville had been looted and vandalized during the Occupation and, because much of the damage had been done by locals, she did not feel able to return. She wrote memoirs of Norman Douglas and George Moore which were well received, and visited her friends. Deteriorating health, both physical and mental, caused her to alienate even her oldest and closest friends so that she died alone in a Parisian charity hospital in 1965.
**************
From one of the many many similar letters Nancy received:
”You may deceive people abroad but you can’t deceive the American public. We know why you are a nigger lover. One good thing, you are hastening the founding of a society to combat degenerate whites and their negro associates. You are truly a disgrace to your family, you are a disgrace to your race.”
From some of the reviews and comments from the African-American community:
“the peoples of Negro blood everywhere owe you a debt of gratitude. No one of us has been able to put within the covers of a book so much for our defense. With such staunch friends our cause with that of humanity can not be lost. “
And, in reference to its placing of Communism as of vital importance to the struggle:
“
About NEGRO. I took it to town with me one week or so ago. I made the usual calls. ILD, WIR, NSL, Musicians League, John Reed Club, etc. In each place in turn, comrades swooped down on the book. And all work ceased while the pages were thumbed while the workers mobbed around from the first page to the last. Dozens of them bid to borrow it. Comments were frequent. Some criticisms- but more, much more enthusiastic praise. Said one: That Cunard dame achieved a United Front with all the bastards, the thing the C.I hasn’t even had a smell at. Just listen to the DuBois lullaby in juxtaposition with the militant awakening martial tune of Communism- Ford, Amis, Gordon and the others. She’s got em booked for like alright. In black and white too.”
I think those contrasts tell you pretty much all you need to know.
This is an exceptionally important work, and one which is sadly out of print and hard to find for reasonable prices – please check if your library has a copy and go get it out.
It is not perfect by modern standards in terms of its views on race, but this is to be expected. It does, however, place an emphasis on issues of race and gender that were not explored in the mainstream for another 50 years.
*******
My earlier comments:
Finally, after 7 months of searching, I have a copy of this legendary anthology from the 30s that, even thought it was re-printed more recently, is still OUP and impossible to find. It is incredible and HUGE:
with normal sized book for reference...
And look at what is inside (including a Beckett translation of a poem on Louis Armstrong)!
Displaying 1 of 1 review