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Vendor
Liepman Literary Agency
Marc Koralnik
Original language
English

FIVE LOVE AFFAIRS AND A FRIENDSHIP

Anne de Courcy

Scenes from the Paris Life of Nancy Cunard

US title: MAGNIFICENT REBEL: Nancy Cunard in Jazz Age Paris

The passions of a creative, tempestuous life, vividly told by a master biographer and social historian
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 book: 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.

Anne de Courcy is an acclaimed biographer and journalist. Her book THE FISHING FLEET spent 7 weeks in the Sunday Times bestseller list.
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Published 2022-04-01 by Weidenfeld & Nicolson

Comments

‘De Courcy is an assiduous researcher with an eye for detail and anecdote, and she has made full use of all available papers and studies De Courcy has always been good at conjuring up a social milieu, and her account of Paris between the wars, while hardly unfamiliar territory, is fresh and entertaining as an always entertaining account of her most glamorous years, and the Parisian world in which she shone, FIVE LOVE AFFAIRS AND A FRIENDSHIP may well revive serious interest in a flawed but remarkable woman.'