July 24, 1916

The life of Mary Reynolds (1891 to September 30, 1950) was a bright slender flame in the last century. Our information is mainly from an article by Susan Godlewski. The child of wealthy parents in Minneapolis, she graduated from Vassar and married on July 24, 1916, the son of a St. Louis judge. Her brief  marriage was ended by the war. With her widow's pension and a modest income from a trust fund, she went to Paris, Paris of the 1920s. And immediately apparently fit right in. Her circle was the avant garde surrealists and the next two decades were spent supporting their work. She collaborated with her long time lover Marcel Duchamp sometimes on the bookbinding she practiced. Her artistic talent was modest. 

Her character was of an inexplicable metal. Described by her friends as quiet, Mary Reynolds refused multiple opportunities to escape Paris after the Nazis took control. Duchamp had left already and importuned her from New York to get outof France and join him. Her brother sent her tickets. She stayed to work with the Resistance. 

After seeing the trucks of soldiers around her house though, she knew her circle had been compromised. She was actually not at home, when they came, and she finally left Paris. Some of her adventures are mentioned in Godlewski's article. She got to New York. 

After the war was over, she wanted to return to her home in Paris. Marcel Duchamp wanted to stay in New York. She had had many cats in Paris, and Duchamp is said to have hoped, that a stray she adopted in New York would be a tie to keep her there with him.  But she returned to Paris without the famed artist. Her ill-health though brought him to her bedside in a few years and Duchamp was with her at the end.