Heiress to the Cunard Line shipping business, Nancy was also a writer, publisher and political activist who moved within the Surrealist and Dada circles in 1920s Paris. She took many famous lovers including the artists Man Ray, Louis Aragon and Constantin Brancusi, and the writers Ernest Hemingway, James Joyce and Aldous Huxley.
In 1928 she dated Henry Crowder, an African-American jazz musician, and became active in adopting a stance against racism and discrimination by publishing works by black writers and providing a platform for them to voice their discontent. This led to Cunard receiving endless hate mail and threats. But this did not deter her from lending her support to the anti-fascist fight, documenting the atrocities of the Spanish Civil War and assisting the relief effort.
Cunard was famous for her stacks of bangles which she wore all the way up her forearms, often with dramatic black outfits. Her skinny figure gave her an androgynous look which she would contradict with striking make-up and fashionably styled hair.
Nancy Cunard suffered from ill mental health and alcoholism and died aged 69 weighing only 57pounds. Her ashes are interred at Pere-Lachaise cemetery in Paris.
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