Mina Loy–the woman with the thermometer–was a creature of delightful whimsy. She was also a feminist voice of considerable power, whose perspective was informed in part by her Jewish heritage.Her “Feminist Manifesto” began with this stirring call to action, complete with certain words writ large and underlined (bolded and in italics here):

“The feminist movement as at present instituted is Inadequate.

Women if you want to realise yourselves–you are on the eve of a devastating psychological upheaval–all your pet illusions must be unmasked–the lies of centuries have got to go–are you prepared for the Wrench? There is no half measure. NO scratching on the surface of the rubbish heap of tradition, will bring about Reform, the only method is Absolute Demolition...” (Loy, 153)

Mina Loy wrote these words in 1914.

Click on the link above to read the entirety of this take no prisoners manifesto with all of the type size shifts and underlining in tact.

Mina Loy, Poet and Modern Woman

I first fell in love with the image of the woman with the thermometer earring. The image that kicks up this article was on a postcard that I bought immediately upon discovering it and which I could never bring myself to send. Her self-satisfaction with the delightfully unconventional fashion choice was so satirically self-aware that, even in 1984, I found it amazing that the photo was taken in 1918. People actually had that sensibility back then?

Back then, I had no idea that “Mina Loy” was a remarkable person apart from her unique choice of an accessory.

I don’t recall just when I realized Mina Loy was also a successful poet and notable personality of that era. Or that she had a boxer/poet for a lover and later husband. Or that… well, just about everything about her was wonderful.

For those sufficiently intrigued, I recommend her biography Becoming Modern: The Life of Mina Loy by Carolyn Burke, published in 1996.

Creating Image and Shaping Realities

Another frankly modern aspect of Mina Loy’s life is that she appreciated both the image and persona one could create and the practical realities of living a life. She was quite good at both, though living one’s life is always more fraught with greater risk. Not to mention being less in one’s control. Mina hobnobbed with other modernists such as Djuna Barnes, Gertrude Stein and Alice B. Toklas while living for a time in Paris. Her artistic sense of image is readily captured by two of the photos featured in this article, the first with the thermometer, the second posing as a modern Eve, unashamed of offering up an apple.

Her 1914 poem “Three Moments in Paris” show her equally adept at creating powerful images with words. The poem includes lines like “the brandy cherries in winking glasses are decomposing harmoniously with the flesh of spectators” and “all the virgin eyes in the world are made of glass.” In her poetry and prose she fearlessly explores the intersection of men and women–relations sensual and troubling. Ezra Pound wrote in 1921 that Loy was one of only three American poets that he thought worthy of following, the others being William Carlos Williams and Marianne Moore. Others considered Loy a worthy successor to Emily Dickinson (Loy, xv). Loy’s early poems were collected and published under the title Lunar Baedecker in 1923.

In her day to day life, Loy further defied convention in her romance with Arthur Cravan, crafting a relationship that was complicated, frustrating and enlivening in equal measure. After his death, Loy lived a number of lives, each tied to its locale, specifically New York City and Paris..

Arthur Cravan: Boxer, Poet and Rogue

Once I began to explore the life of Mina Loy, it seemed inconceivable that she would have had an ordinary romantic life. I was not disappointed. The love of her life was a handsome writer who rechristened himself Arthur Cravan, who just happened to be an amateur boxer. Who just happened to be related to Oscar Wilde–the nephew of Oscar’s wife. Who just happened to have toyed with the affections of Andre Gide, noted homosexual scholar of that era.  Who fought an exhibition bout with Jack Johnson, heavyweight champion. Who won the largely undeserved love (though how often are our loves deserved?) of Mina Loy. Who also died under mysterious circumstances. Of course he did.

Mina Loy recalled the morning after they first made love. He hadn’t stayed the night, ringing her up the following day.

“Darling,” he declared in a husky whisper, “do you realize this great thing that has happened to you? You have a lover!”

“I had not noticed it,” Loy returned.

“Little angel, do you regret it?”

To which the woman with the thermometer earring replied, “I never regret wasted time.”

To Cravan’s credit, he laughed. (Conover, p. 110)

Mina Loy and Arthur Cravan soon became a couple and ultimately married. He was lost at sea before  Loy gave birth to their only child, a daughter. 

Cravan is a figure warranting a later entry on this website all his own. I just tease the reader with these brief details and two photos that capture Cravan’s unresolved dichotomy: poet and boxer. Perhaps only a rogue could unite the two.

Her Jewish Heritage

Mina Loy was born in England in, the product of a “mixed” marriage. Her father was Jewish and her mother was a Protestant Christian. While neither parent was quite able to handle their wonderfully independent and strong-willed daughter, her father supported her dream of going to art school–a talent which once developed helped her to survive in later life. Loy would fondly recall how her father would speak of descending from “the priestly glory” of his ancestors (Burke, 28-29).

Ever a unique thinker, Loy proudly embraced her blended heritage, subversively claiming the label of “mongrel” as a badge of honor.

Loy developed an intriguing ideology embracing the mixing of the “races”, suggesting that doing so improved the bloodline–the exact opposite of the far more common racist ideology of the day. Loy boldly declared that “the genius of mixed race has inevitably a roundness of understanding of humanity at large…” In this way, Loy felt, “mongrels” were innovators, breaking free of “the mechanical re-actions of the subconsciousness, that rubbish heap of race traditions.” (Vetter, 56, 57).

This ideology blended nicely with her deep appreciation of life in America, which she found more vital than her stifling earlier years in England. In 1925, Loy wrote: “It was inevitable that the renaissance of poetry should proceed out of America, where latterly a thousand languages have been born … English enriched and variegated with the grammatical structure and voice-inflection of many races…” (Loy, 158; Vetter, 58)

Mina’s father died in 1917, in the midst of her tumultuous relationship with Arthur Cravan. Still in England, it had been five years since she’d last seen him. Her inheritance was the final gift her father gave her–enabling her to maintain her independence during a challenging time for her. In 1936, Loy’s Jewish heritage had a far darker impact. The rise of Nazi Germany forced the poet, then living in Paris, to return to the United States for safety. She would remain there for the rest of her life (Burke, 248, 387).

Loy had four children in all. Three were from an earlier marriage, one of whom died in childbirth.

Mina Loy, Elder Beauty

Flash forward twenty years. In 1958, Loy saw a new collection of her work published in book form as Lunar Baedecker & Time Tables. She was 74. The book earned her a whole new generation of admirers. The photo to the left was taken by Jonathan Williams, all rights reserved, for possible use for the book’s cover. Loy insisted her eyes be the focal point instead. It was in her eyes that she felt her vitality remained in an otherwise increasingly frail body. But even as she neared death at the age of 83, Loy kept her sharp wit. When her attending physician casually commented that his wife was pregnant, the woman with the thermometer earring exclaimed, “Oh, how unimaginative.” (Burke, 439)

References

Burke, Carolyn. Becoming Modern: The Life of Mina Loy. New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 1996.

Conover, Roger, “Mina Loy’s ‘Colossus’: Arthur Cravan Undressed.” In Rudolf E. Kuenzli’s New York Dada. New York: Wllis Locker & Owens, 1986.

Loy, Mina. The Lost Lunar Baedeker Poems, Roger L Conover editor. New York: Farrar Straus Giroux, 1996.

Vetter, Laura. “Theories of Spiritual Evolution, Christian Science, and the “Cosmopolitan Jew”: Mina Loy and American Identity.” Journal of Modern Literature, Fall 2017, v. 31, #1, pp. 47-63.

Mark Carlson-Ghost