Mina Loy

A new biography of Mina Loy shows that the roving modernist saw artistic genius as a means to self-reinvention. -- Francesca Wade * The New York Review of Books *
Caws’s short critical biography embraces Loy as a marvel, an unclassifiable genius who made “magnificently complex work” and led an “out-of-the-ordinary life”. Caws devotes a welcome chapter to her visual art, which is not well known. -- Sophie Oliver * Times Literary Supplement *
Loy emerges as a singular figure, and Caws’s biography of this great woman defends Loy as one who "went right on, exclusive in herself, reclusive in herself, being herself." . . . It took Caws twenty-one years to write this book, perhaps because Loy’s multiplicity makes her a difficult subject. Her singularity is many. Mina Loy was categorically her own figure and Caws’s biography presents these assorted facets of Loy’s life in a loose arrangement that encourages readers to go beyond the biography and meet, through their own discovery (perhaps recovery) of her works, this irresolvable woman. * Choice *
It’s refreshing to read something by someone who doesn’t lay claims to total detachment, and is prepared to perhaps stand open to criticism by being outspoken in her admiration for Loy and her work . . . The book has notes, a short but useful bibliography, and is well-illustrated with photos and reproductions of art works. Also, and it’s a virtue in my opinion, it doesn’t need to extend beyond its 223 pages when making a convincing case for Mina Loy as a poet worth reviving and reading. * Northern Review of Books *
Much like its subject, Mina Loy: Apology of Genius runs on restlessness, fervor, and open-endedness. With it, Mary Ann Caws has gifted us yet another stirring assemblage that teaches and excites, this time blessedly dilating on a singularly complex, singularly wild figure at the heart of the modern and so much else. * Maggie Nelson, author of The Argonauts *

Like Mary Ann Caws’s other critical studies, her Mina Loy is startlingly original, personal, and wonderfully refreshing in its candour. Beautifully and copiously illustrated, this bio-critical overview gives us a genuinely new perspective on the exciting poetry, critical prose, and artworks of this great avant-garde artist. Loy’s central role in both the Futurist and Dada movements has never before been so persuasively argued. A real page-turner!

* Marjorie Perloff, author of Infrathin: An Experiment in Micropoetics *

Reading Mary Ann Caws’ book today reminds me of the excitement I felt when I first encountered Mina Loy’s writing nearly fifty years ago. Mina Loy is not for everyone, I wrote at the time. She is an acquired habit. But if she gets into your system, you may become addicted. In fact you may not ever get over her, in which case this charismatic book will not help you. It will only make withdrawal more difficult.

* Roger Conover, writer, editor and Mina Loy's literary executor *