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Five Love Affairs and a Friendship: The Paris Life of Nancy Cunard, Icon of the Jazz Age
Dazzlingly beautiful, highly intelligent and an extraordinary force of energy, Nancy Cunard was an icon of the Jazz Age, said to have inspired half the poets and novelists of the twenties. Born into a life of wealth and privilege, yet one in which she barely saw her parents, Nancy rebelled against expectations and pursued a life in the arts. She sought the constant company of artists, writers, poets and painters, first in London's Soho and Mayfair, and then in the glamorous cafes of 1920s Paris.This is the remarkable story of Nancy's Paris life, filled with art, sex and alcohol. She became a muse to Wyndham Lewis, Constantin Brâncusi sculpted her, Man Ray photographed her and she played tennis with Ernest Hemingway. She had many love affairs, the most significant of which are included in this the American poet Ezra Pound, the novelists Aldous Huxley and Michael Arlen, the French poet Louis Aragon and finally and controversially the black American pianist Henry Crowder, with whom she ran her printing press in Paris. She was also shaped by her lifelong friendship with George Moore, her mother's lover.This tempestuous tale of passion and intrigue is as much a portrait of twenties Paris as it is the story of an extraordinary woman who defined her age.
321 pages, Kindle Edition
Published April 28, 2022
22 people are currently reading
152 people want to read
About the author
Anne de Courcy
24 books209 followersBorn in 1927, Anne de Courcy is a well-known writer, journalist and book reviewer. In the 1970s she was Woman’s Editor on the London Evening News until its demise in 1980, when she joined the Evening Standard as a columnist and feature-writer. In 1982 she joined the Daily Mail as a feature writer, with a special interest in historical subjects, leaving in 2003 to concentrate on books, on which she has talked widely both here and in the United States.
A critically-acclaimed and best-selling author, she believes that as well as telling the story of its subject’s life, a biography should depict the social history of the period, since so much of action and behaviour is governed not simply by obvious financial, social and physical conditions but also by underlying, often unspoken, contemporary attitudes, assumptions, standards and moral codes.
Anne is on the committee of the Biographers’ Club; and a past judge of their annual Prize. Her recent biographies, all of which have been serialised, include THE VICEROY’S DAUGHTERS, DIANA MOSLEY and DEBS AT WAR and SNOWDON; THE BIOGRAPHY, written with the agreement and co-operation of the Earl of Snowdon. Based on Anne’s book, a Channel 4 documentary “Snowdon and Margaret: Inside a Royal Marriage”, was broadcast.
Anne was a judge for the recent Biography section of the Costa Award in 2013, and is also one of the judges on the final selection panel judging the best of all the genres.
A critically-acclaimed and best-selling author, she believes that as well as telling the story of its subject’s life, a biography should depict the social history of the period, since so much of action and behaviour is governed not simply by obvious financial, social and physical conditions but also by underlying, often unspoken, contemporary attitudes, assumptions, standards and moral codes.
Anne is on the committee of the Biographers’ Club; and a past judge of their annual Prize. Her recent biographies, all of which have been serialised, include THE VICEROY’S DAUGHTERS, DIANA MOSLEY and DEBS AT WAR and SNOWDON; THE BIOGRAPHY, written with the agreement and co-operation of the Earl of Snowdon. Based on Anne’s book, a Channel 4 documentary “Snowdon and Margaret: Inside a Royal Marriage”, was broadcast.
Anne was a judge for the recent Biography section of the Costa Award in 2013, and is also one of the judges on the final selection panel judging the best of all the genres.
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Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews
September 10, 2024
Anne de Courcy turns her focus on Nancy Cunard in this one. Cunard was an heiress (her father was one of the shipping line Cunards) and was part of a pre-Great War literary circle and then went on to spend the 1920s deeply enmeshed in the literary movement in Paris. She was a muse to many writers of the time - some of whom were also her lovers - and set up her own literary press, before going on to fight racism and fascism. She led quite a sad life in many ways - and this book doesn't shy away from that, but it's a really interesting read and a good look at the Parisian side of the roaring twenties.
July 15, 2023
This is a heavy but interesting read. Nancy Cunard was a sad person: a drunk, moderately talented, a poor friend, deeply muddled in her thinking and self-destructive. She mixed with some of the great literary talents and artists of her time. The book peeks into the lives of some very famous names. It is about the lost generation of those living during and after WWI. Their lives were radically changed by war but the period leading up to the war was one of huge change in society too. I was glad when I'd finished the book. There was little to redeem Nancy. In today's world she would be described as toxic. She had no redeeming features and I couldn't even feel sorry for her. I'm afraid that has influenced my review.
July 29, 2024
3.5 stars
I felt rather exhausted after reading this biography of the life of Nancy Cunard. Just as the hectic, feverish world of 1920s Paris devolved into decadence and then Depression, so did Nancy’s glamorous life drag the reader through various dingy subplots before totally degenerating into a tragic spiral.
The subject’s “likability” really should not be the point, but such was my antipathy to Cunard, that I struggled to be as fascinated (never mind as “bewitched”) with her as her legions of admirers seemed to be. Chaotic, self-destructive, perpetually angry, restless, alcoholic, wildly promiscuous and selfish are just a short-list of the negative traits ascribed to her. Her more redeeming qualities - the generosity, the intelligence, the gift for friendship - were mentioned, but always eclipsed by her other impulses and appetites.
The only child of British aristocrat father and an American heiress mother who became one of the great society hostesses, Cunard was emotionally neglected in ways that no doubt helped form her character. Undoubtedly she was iconoclastic in many ways, and refused to play by the rules that governed the society she grew up in, but she also seemed to retain a peculiarly aristocratic arrogance all of her life. After abandoning London for Paris, Cunard mixed largely with writers, artists, musicians and intellectuals - and although she herself was a published writer, and the founder of a printing press called The Hours - an independent income (from both of her rich parents) meant that could thoroughly inhabit the bohemian 1920s world of Montparnasse and yet not be confined by it. She seemed to move, with imperious confidence, in a world of her own making.
I’ve only just finished the book, but most of the “Love Affairs” - usually with writers, and not lasting more than a year or two - are already half-forgotten. The one truly interesting thing about Nancy Cunard, though - at least to my mind - was her relationship with the African-American musician Henry Crowder. Although Crowder and other black musicians and performers were celebrated in 1920s Paris - and certainly found a refuge there from the overtly racist and segregated United States - it was still a boldly courageous action for a rich white woman to openly embrace an interracial relationship.
Early in the 1920s, Cunard became fascinated by African art and jewellery - her large collection of ivory bracelets were a defining part of her celebrated style - and what perhaps began as a fascination or aesthetic fad did seem to develop into a great passion and crusading cause. By her own estimation, the crowning achievement of her life was an Anthology titled Negro, which seemed to combine history and literature and social commentary, and featured many of the important African-American voices of the time period.
It’s a shame that the politically impassioned Nancy Cunard seemed like a minor character compared to the belligerent drunk, but sadly, all of her accomplishments and talents and relationships were ultimately destroyed by that fatal weakness. She didn’t leave the world any perfect Gatsbyesque novel, like her acquaintance F. Scott Fitzgerald, but she spoiled her life in much the same way. In this way, I suppose she is a fitting “icon” of the Jazz Age.
I felt rather exhausted after reading this biography of the life of Nancy Cunard. Just as the hectic, feverish world of 1920s Paris devolved into decadence and then Depression, so did Nancy’s glamorous life drag the reader through various dingy subplots before totally degenerating into a tragic spiral.
The subject’s “likability” really should not be the point, but such was my antipathy to Cunard, that I struggled to be as fascinated (never mind as “bewitched”) with her as her legions of admirers seemed to be. Chaotic, self-destructive, perpetually angry, restless, alcoholic, wildly promiscuous and selfish are just a short-list of the negative traits ascribed to her. Her more redeeming qualities - the generosity, the intelligence, the gift for friendship - were mentioned, but always eclipsed by her other impulses and appetites.
The only child of British aristocrat father and an American heiress mother who became one of the great society hostesses, Cunard was emotionally neglected in ways that no doubt helped form her character. Undoubtedly she was iconoclastic in many ways, and refused to play by the rules that governed the society she grew up in, but she also seemed to retain a peculiarly aristocratic arrogance all of her life. After abandoning London for Paris, Cunard mixed largely with writers, artists, musicians and intellectuals - and although she herself was a published writer, and the founder of a printing press called The Hours - an independent income (from both of her rich parents) meant that could thoroughly inhabit the bohemian 1920s world of Montparnasse and yet not be confined by it. She seemed to move, with imperious confidence, in a world of her own making.
I’ve only just finished the book, but most of the “Love Affairs” - usually with writers, and not lasting more than a year or two - are already half-forgotten. The one truly interesting thing about Nancy Cunard, though - at least to my mind - was her relationship with the African-American musician Henry Crowder. Although Crowder and other black musicians and performers were celebrated in 1920s Paris - and certainly found a refuge there from the overtly racist and segregated United States - it was still a boldly courageous action for a rich white woman to openly embrace an interracial relationship.
Early in the 1920s, Cunard became fascinated by African art and jewellery - her large collection of ivory bracelets were a defining part of her celebrated style - and what perhaps began as a fascination or aesthetic fad did seem to develop into a great passion and crusading cause. By her own estimation, the crowning achievement of her life was an Anthology titled Negro, which seemed to combine history and literature and social commentary, and featured many of the important African-American voices of the time period.
It’s a shame that the politically impassioned Nancy Cunard seemed like a minor character compared to the belligerent drunk, but sadly, all of her accomplishments and talents and relationships were ultimately destroyed by that fatal weakness. She didn’t leave the world any perfect Gatsbyesque novel, like her acquaintance F. Scott Fitzgerald, but she spoiled her life in much the same way. In this way, I suppose she is a fitting “icon” of the Jazz Age.
June 1, 2022
(slightly upgraded)
Social historian Anne de Courcy painted a meticulously detailed portrait of the beautiful and dynamic Nancy Cunard, “icon of the Jazz Age”, focused on her years in Paris, 1920-34. She herself was like the times in which she lived "with its rejection of ordered days, its somewhat chaotic spur-of-the-moment decisions to do this and that…and its deliberate refusal to be part of the highly capitalist society into which she had been born”. Her life was characterised by her sexual dalliances and the five significant love affairs referred to in the title: with Armenian author, Michael Arden, Ezra Pound, Aldous Huxley, and black jazz pianist, Henry Crowder. Alongside these lovers were the [perhaps} hundreds of casual lovers Nancy seemed to need, perhaps to assuage her intense insecurity after a childhood of neglect from her society-figure parents. She remained the close friend of George Moore, one of her mother's past lovers.
What I found difficult was the continuance of Nancy’s heavy drinking, her careless revelling through the night, and her inability to remain faithful even to those to whom she professed her love. I came to dislike her until the concluding chapters, in which she finally found a noble purpose fighting against the racial injustices suffered by Black Americans and inspired by her association with Crowder. Her defence of the Scottsboro Boys and her publication in 1934 of “Negro”, with two thirds of its works written by black authors, allowed me to reconsider my criticism of the waste of her high intelligence.
What was most fascinating to me was the author’s stunning portrait of Paris itself, by far the most intriguing “character” of the book. The “most romantic of cities” attracted its tourist and American ex-pat residents because of the sexual freedom it offered, the perfect atmosphere for creativity, and significantly, it was an “alcoholic heaven” at the time of American Prohibition. Its cafes, bars, all-night entertainment lit the streets and provided a glamourous backdrop to the poets, artists, and thinkers who had escaped the more restrictive expectations of their original homes. Among this glamour was the mesmerising Nancy Cunard.
She characterised herself as wishing to be “indifferent to criticism, egocentric, concentrated, private, indisputably right and yet always loved by others.” The author projected just such an image of her.
Social historian Anne de Courcy painted a meticulously detailed portrait of the beautiful and dynamic Nancy Cunard, “icon of the Jazz Age”, focused on her years in Paris, 1920-34. She herself was like the times in which she lived "with its rejection of ordered days, its somewhat chaotic spur-of-the-moment decisions to do this and that…and its deliberate refusal to be part of the highly capitalist society into which she had been born”. Her life was characterised by her sexual dalliances and the five significant love affairs referred to in the title: with Armenian author, Michael Arden, Ezra Pound, Aldous Huxley, and black jazz pianist, Henry Crowder. Alongside these lovers were the [perhaps} hundreds of casual lovers Nancy seemed to need, perhaps to assuage her intense insecurity after a childhood of neglect from her society-figure parents. She remained the close friend of George Moore, one of her mother's past lovers.
What I found difficult was the continuance of Nancy’s heavy drinking, her careless revelling through the night, and her inability to remain faithful even to those to whom she professed her love. I came to dislike her until the concluding chapters, in which she finally found a noble purpose fighting against the racial injustices suffered by Black Americans and inspired by her association with Crowder. Her defence of the Scottsboro Boys and her publication in 1934 of “Negro”, with two thirds of its works written by black authors, allowed me to reconsider my criticism of the waste of her high intelligence.
What was most fascinating to me was the author’s stunning portrait of Paris itself, by far the most intriguing “character” of the book. The “most romantic of cities” attracted its tourist and American ex-pat residents because of the sexual freedom it offered, the perfect atmosphere for creativity, and significantly, it was an “alcoholic heaven” at the time of American Prohibition. Its cafes, bars, all-night entertainment lit the streets and provided a glamourous backdrop to the poets, artists, and thinkers who had escaped the more restrictive expectations of their original homes. Among this glamour was the mesmerising Nancy Cunard.
She characterised herself as wishing to be “indifferent to criticism, egocentric, concentrated, private, indisputably right and yet always loved by others.” The author projected just such an image of her.
October 17, 2022
It isn’t hyperbole to claim that Nancy Cunard was an iconic figure in Paris during the 1920s. She was photographed by Man Ray, sculpted by Brancusi, and was the inspiration for Michael Arlen’s celebrated novel The Green Hat.
Born in 1896 into wealth and privilege and a titled family, Nancy rarely saw her parents. (Probably not unusual). Whilst still young, her mother (Maud, later changed to Emerald) started an affair with the novelist George Moore, a man who was in thrall with Emerald his entire life, and strangely, given the difference in their ages, one of Nancy’s life-long friends.
Headstrong and determined to reject what she viewed as her mother’s vacuous lifestyle of ‘society hostess’, Nancy fled to Paris to immerse herself in the world of arts: she writes poetry garnering respectable reviews. In Paris she beguiles men (and women) with her beauty and intelligence. Her appetite for alcohol, parties and sex was unparalleled. The five love affairs of the title refer to Ezra Pound, Louis Aragon, Aldous Huxley, the aforesaid Arlen, and most sensationally with the black musician Henry Crowder; the latter relationship would lead to Nancy discovering a real vocation; to agitate against the prejudice and injustices aimed at Negroes. Her magnum opus, “Negro” runs to 800 pages plus, a weighty tome in more ways than one. The book she devoted so much time and money sold few copies when it was published in 1934.
With the scope of this book limited to Nancy’s life in the 1920s, any Reader eager to learn more about Nancy’s life need go no further than Anne Chisholm’s masterly biography published in 1979. It is simply one of the best biographies I’ve read.
Born in 1896 into wealth and privilege and a titled family, Nancy rarely saw her parents. (Probably not unusual). Whilst still young, her mother (Maud, later changed to Emerald) started an affair with the novelist George Moore, a man who was in thrall with Emerald his entire life, and strangely, given the difference in their ages, one of Nancy’s life-long friends.
Headstrong and determined to reject what she viewed as her mother’s vacuous lifestyle of ‘society hostess’, Nancy fled to Paris to immerse herself in the world of arts: she writes poetry garnering respectable reviews. In Paris she beguiles men (and women) with her beauty and intelligence. Her appetite for alcohol, parties and sex was unparalleled. The five love affairs of the title refer to Ezra Pound, Louis Aragon, Aldous Huxley, the aforesaid Arlen, and most sensationally with the black musician Henry Crowder; the latter relationship would lead to Nancy discovering a real vocation; to agitate against the prejudice and injustices aimed at Negroes. Her magnum opus, “Negro” runs to 800 pages plus, a weighty tome in more ways than one. The book she devoted so much time and money sold few copies when it was published in 1934.
With the scope of this book limited to Nancy’s life in the 1920s, any Reader eager to learn more about Nancy’s life need go no further than Anne Chisholm’s masterly biography published in 1979. It is simply one of the best biographies I’ve read.
October 11, 2022
Dear me this really was dreadful. I have no problem with a writer liking their subject, but at the same time I'm hoping they take a partisan view in their book. Sadly we didn't get that here. Ms de Courcy arse kisses with such gay abandon I almost puked, especially as her subject is a self-centred cruel woman. Also this book was so repetitive I felt I was going round in circles. Oh well onwards and upwards.
August 2, 2023
Madness in Paris
An insightful and extremely well researched look at the blooming of the surrealist movement in Paris forms the background to this excellent story of the life of the extraordinary Nancy Cunard and her many lovers.
An insightful and extremely well researched look at the blooming of the surrealist movement in Paris forms the background to this excellent story of the life of the extraordinary Nancy Cunard and her many lovers.
July 11, 2022
Anne de Courcy writing about my favourite period.
November 17, 2024
This book builds a full and vivid picture of a whirlwind of a decade, city, and person.
July 14, 2025
DNF - I just do not care about this woman's life
Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews