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Scroll down for corrections and supplementary materials to

Anthony Barnett

LISTENING FOR HENRY CROWDER

Henry Crowder, 1890–1955, consort of Nancy Cunard, was Eddie South’s pianist 1927–1928
He made piano rolls and solo and orchestra disc recordings with South and others
Crowder was not born in 1895 as often given

BOOK + CD



128 page, royal 8vo format, monograph with previously undocumented materials published December 2007 by Allardyce Book
including essay, roll/discography, some 90 photos, documents, music, CD insert AB Fable XABCD1-X017
with rolls and recordings including the Nancy Cunard and Henry Crowder composition Memory Blues aka Bœuf sur le toit and
new recordings by New York vocalist Allan Harris of six compositions by Crowder including his collaboration with Samuel Beckett

read publisher back cover blurb here

Price £45 trade or £36; outside UK in/enquire (amended May 2024)
Payment by PayPal, sterling cheque, dollar or other check (in/enquire)
or by direct transfer to our bank account (enquire)
Enquire for quantity discount

ISBN 978-0-907954-36-1

place your order or ask for more info here

don’t forget to write Crowder in the subject heading

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We no longer have a USA distributor. Order only direct from UK

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Read Review Extracts Here

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Beware proliferation of error on the web
There is a great deal of misinformation on the web often
perpetuated by the promiscuous raiding of one site by another
Nowhere is this more true than references to Cunard and Crowder
Bad web etiquette infects sites such as wikipedia, flickr and various blogs
Unfortunately the latest biographies of Nancy Cunard add to the nonsense

*

This photo posted online originally at art-is-life and copied to several other sites
purporting to show Henry Crowder and Nancy Cunard does not show Crowder
The printed source from which we think art-is-life took this photo quite rightly says
the man is unidentified while suggesting he is a musician, which we do not think he is
We have an idea about his identity assuming the photo is genuine, which it may not be



Nancy Cunard Not Henry Crowder

*

This caricature by Anthony Wysard is in the National Portrait Gallery, NPG D289, accessible online
It depicts a couple observed at an exhibition in London and is inscribed by the artist 1928
NPG attributes those depicted to “Probably Henry Crowder; [definitely] Nancy Cunard” doubtless
because Wysard published a caricature of Nancy Cunard’s mother Lady Cunard in 1928
Categorically those depicted are neither Crowder nor Cunard. Crowder did not visit England in 1928
Cunard had no association with African Americans or Africans before the South orchestra in Venice in 1928
Neither do physical characteristics and attire, even in caricature, accord with what is known of them
Again, we have an idea about their possible identity but it is currently too speculative to place on record
It is reproduced with the misattribution in the catalogue accompanying the exhibition Afro Modern
Barson and Gorschluter, eds., Afro Modernism: Journeys Through the Black Atlantic (Tate Liverpool, 2010)
NPG and Tate curator Barson refuse to accept any of the evidence contradicting their attribution
We have succeeded only in getting NPG to correct the dates of Crowder’s birth and death




Not Henry Crowder Not Nancy Cunard

*

An out-of-date exploratory article first published in Shuffle Boil in 2003 and posted with
some amendments on this site was removed in 2007 because it is superseded by the book
and the supplementary materials below

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CORRECTIONS AND SUPPLEMENTARY MATERIALS

Copyright © Allardyce, Barnett, Publishers 2007–2024

Research assistance courtesy
Horst Bergmeier, Alan Black, Eve Brandel, Christian Van den Broeck, Nigel Burwood, Sarah Phillips Casteel, Alain Délot, Björn Englund, Sarah Frioux-Salgas, Seán Lawlor, Nicholas Linkenhoker at Ohio State University Libraries, Bo Lindström, Rainer Lotz, George Lukes, Mike Meddings, Jean-Claude Miller, Mark Miller, Konrad Nowakowski, Hans Pehl, Paul Rassam, Howard Rye, Barry Schwabsky, Daniel Soutif, Val Wilmer

Notification of further corrections will be gratefully received

Content of this page and linked pages is Copyright © Allardyce, Barnett, Publishers 2007–2024 and may
not be reproduced in print or further posted online without the written permission of the Publisher
except for fair use brief text quotation accompanied by our copyright and url link to this web page
Do not take images from this site without written permission

Last updated April 2024

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IMPORTANT CD CORRECTION

We are mortified to discover that tracks 1–6 rolls do not play in the chronological
release number order as intended and shown in the track listing on p.128 of the book
Here is the erroneous order heard on the CD

1. I Found a New Baby / 2. Meadow-Lark / 3. Looking at the World (Thru Rose Colored Glasses)
4. I’m Walking Around in Circles / 5. Precious / 6. I’m Happy, You’re Happy, They’re Happy Too

It’s that ol’ devil in the detail called toon

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Photos of Cunard’s Normandy farmhouse Le Puits Carré in 2008

*

Reminiscences by George Lukes and others of life in the POW camp where Crowder was interned

*

Eyewitness account by Jean-Claude Miller of Crowder in the POW camps where both were interned

*

For African-American POW internees see also Eve Brandel at

https://medium.com/@evebrandel/the-caricaturist-a7bebbad79b1

*

pp.8, 9, etc, photos

Many photos, both unpublished and the originals of others thought mislaid, have been located at the Harry Ransom Humanities Research
Failure to locate them earlier was because of misunderstandings in communications between AB and the Center
On the basis of dating and location on the back of one unpublished photo, it is now believed that the following may have been taken in Carquieranne, Var, May 1931

p23, photo bottom right

The photo of Cunard and Crowder at the press appeared in an early 1930 issue of The Sphere, London (exact date of the weekly issue yet to be confirmed) with

the somewhat incongruous caption “FRANCO-AMERICAN: Miss Nancy Cunard, a social legistrate of the U.S.A. who has opened a printing and colour lithography business in Paris

p.26, top, the uncropped original of which has been found

p.65

The locations of other photos include one of Cunard and Crowder identifiable as St Tropez and some of Crowder identifiable as London

*

p.11, l.7, read Gérard Conte [not Géard]

*

p.11, l.12, read Steve Dickison [not Stceve]

*

p.11, 128, read Yan Pevzner [not Yvan]

*

pp.14, last paragraph, 95, Obituary
The following obituary in the African-American press has been located by Val Wilmer
Add to bibliography
Anon., “Henry Crowder, Atlantan, Dies in Washington”, Atlanta Daily World (Atlanta, 3 April 1955), 2
A native of the Atlanta of many years, Henry W. Crowder, Sr., died in his Washington, D.C. home Sunday.
Funeral sevices were held Friday. His death preceded by one day that of his old friend and former
fellow-Sunday School classmate at First Congregational Church, Walter White.
A well-known musician, one of his first musical experiences was as organist at the Congregational Church.
There he and Walter White were in the Boys class, taught by the well-known and respected insurance pioneer, Herman Perry.
It was Mr. Perry who gave him much encouragement to continue his musical studies to enhance the talent that made him welcome
not only here in his home town but also in Washington, where he later went to live, Paris and Brussels, where he spent 10 years.
During this ten years, the Nazi war machine invaded France and Mr. Crowder was taken off to spend a period of time in one of their
notorious concentration camps. [sic: Crowder was taken from Belgium and interned in a POW camp, not concentration camp.]
During this time, he later confided to a friend, his music was all that held his sanity together.
Following his release and at the end of the war [sic: release before the end of the war], he returned,
broken in health, to the United States. Aside from his musical activities—organist, choir director,
orchestra leader—he was employed in Washington by the War Department.
His Sunday death left his widow, the former Miss Frankie Turner of Atlanta; one son, Henry Jr., and two grand-daughters.
This information was relayed to the World by an old Atlanta friend, Mrs. Lizzie MacDuffle, who also
served in Washington for several years as housekeeper for the late President Franklin D. Roosevelt.

*

p.16, footnote, read James Dapogny’s posting [not J. Farrell’s posting]

*

p.17, Cab Calloway and Alabamians clarification
Calloway in his 1976 autobiography Of Minnie the Moocher and Me
In May of 1929, we left Chicago and went on the road for three months, but
all we could think of was our ultimate destination—New York City.
This replaces an earlier erroneous posting

*

p.19, Grand Hôtel Luna
two more period illustrations and corrected orthography



Grand Hôtel Luna, Venezia, Propr. Domenico Ruol
postcard, 1920s or 1930s, AB Fable Archive



Vestibolo, Grand Hôtel Luna, Venezia, Prop. Comm. Domenico Ruol
postcard, 1920s or 1930s, AB Fable Archive

*

pp.22, 32, Bayfield Evans clarification



R. Bayfield Evans was a European-resident Jamaican singer, songwriter and drummer
He wrote the lyrics to songs with music by Belgian Sylvain Hamy and Belgian trumpeter Peter Packay and others
published by Felix Faecq’s International Music Company in Brussels in the late 1920s
During the same period Evans sang and played drums with Jack Hamilton and sang with Arthur Briggs on Paris recordings for Azurephone
Evans also recorded in Paris and London with Belgian and English orchestras. Later, in England, he was a film and television actor
For much more information consult Val Wilmer’s entry on Evans in the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography

*

pp.24, 25, 117, “From the Only Poet to a Shining Whore” dating, etc
Overlooked is an undated 1930 letter, just headed Thursday, from Beckett in Paris to
Thomas MacGreevy, extant in Trinity College Dublin Library. The relevant part reads:
The 14th was all right because I was drunker than either Nancy or Henry. There were other people there,
God knows who, but they went off early for a little Cochon de Lait supper. God knows also what I said & did, but
I think it was all right. I was so tired in the end that I could hardly climb into a taxi. They liked the Rahab tomfoolery,
God help them. Henry said several times that it was ‘vey, vey bootiful & vey vey fine in-deed.’ He was very nice &
behaved very well, and played the piano at the Cigogne where I described Arabesques of an original pattern.
I heard from Nancy from London. She has given me [. . .]
Seán Lawlor logically dates the letter 17 July 1930, possibly 24 July 1930, in which case Beckett
wrote “From the Only Poet to a Shining Whore (For Henry Crowder to Sing.)” before 14 July 1930.
If the squeezing in of Beckett’s name on the cover of Henry-Music does indeed denote an afterthought to
his inclusion, then Man Ray’s photomontage may first have been prepared before the summer of 1930.
The letter is briefly quoted in Knowlson, Damned to Fame: The Life of Samuel Beckett (1998) though
part of Beckett’s colorful transcription of Crowder’s speech is accidentally normalized therein.
The letter is included in The Letters of Samuel Beckett: Vol. 1 (2009), see p.99 bibliography addition below

In a letter to Mary Hutchinson from Paris, 28 June 1960, Beckett wrote
I have the Henry book you mention. The poem is bad (as I remember it) and the music even worse.
There is a rather good poem by Lowenfels.
Of course, AB cannot agree, at least not about the music!

There exists, among variants of other early Beckett poems, an unpublished revision of this poem
entitled To Be Sung Loud, which may date from 1932

A word about Cigogne
Knowlson posits Cigogne as an earlier, and familiar, name for Le Bœuf sur le Toit on rue Boissy d’Anglais.
It was not, though there was a tenuous address connection. Cigogne opened at 17 rue Duphot following
closure of La Gaya after a year at that address. The owner of La Gaya decamped to rue Boissy d’Anglais
where he opened the first Bœuf sur le Toit. From 1928 to 1934, during the period of most of Crowder’s
Paris sojourns, Le Bœuf sur le Toit was located at 26 rue de Penthièvre, the second of its four locations

*

p.24, l.12, read together [not to get her] oh dear, those typos

*

p.25, last two ll., read the presence of [not the presence]

*

p.28, l.20, read after a month [not afer a month]

*

p.29, first paragraph, and footnote, Yolande Jackson photos
The suggestion that no photo of Yolande Jackson was known originated with the 9 October 2006 Guardian article.
The Guardian printed a correction on 13 October 2006 stating that a 1930 photo by Bassano exists in the National Portrait Gallery.
In addition, a 1931 photo of her with Paul Robeson is printed, with much information about their relationship, in
Paul Robeson, Jr, The Undiscovered Paul Robeson, An Artist’s Journey, 1898–1939 (New York, Wiley, 2001)
thus rendering the research conducted by the BBC drama writer further suspect.

*

pp.31, and footnote, 33, 35, 48, 71, index correct orthography Adelaide Willoury [not Willowry]
Adelaide Charlotte Birmingham was born Poplar, London, 7 November 1901.
Her parents, mother Charlotte Lilian, or Lillian, Russell, who worked in a pickle factory, and
her father Thomas Birmingham, a steam ship fireman, were married the following month.
Adelaide Charlotte Birmingham married Herbert Henry Willoury in 1921
at which time their address was 88 Hampstead Road, NW London.
Grateful acknowledgement to Val Wilmer for uncovering this information

*

p.31, l.31, read sailing for Calais or sailing from Dover [not sailing from Calais]

*

pp.31, 33, 127, Buddy Bradley confusion with Arthur Bradley
see also itinerary and bibliography fol.
Buddy Bradley did not direct Black and White Birds Revue in Paris with Crowder and Adelaide Willoury [aka Mrs Crowder]
It was Buddy’s brother Arthur Bradley who staged the show, with ballet and dances arranged by Albert Gautier
The revue of fifty performers, headed by Adelaide Hall acc. Garnet Clark piano, was produced by Ralph Clayton
In February 1936 it left Paris for what should have been an extensive tour of Switzerland
Crowder directed the mixed orchestra incl. Frank Withers (trombone) and Chicagoan Duke Kaluna (steel guitar)
Other artists included Crowder’s old colleague in Eddie South’s orchestra Romie Burke in a duo with Vance Lowry
The revue was forecast to return to Paris at Casino de Paris but this did not happen. It broke up in Zurich following
a ten day Basel engagement when white participants were withdrawn in a dispute between Clayton and white backers
Publicity below, courtesy Rainer E. Lotz and Horst Bergmeier, showing Adelaide Hall has mistakenly been said
in print to relate to summer 1936 in Berlin but no Rex Theater is known there and it probably relates to Basel
A promotional disc for Black and White Birds with song excerpts by Adelaide Hall surely acc. Garnet Clark
with German-language announcer is released citing summer 1936 Berlin in error on
2CD Avid [EN] AMSC720 Adelaide Hall A Centenary Celebration and
2CD+book Bear Family [DR] BCD16340BL Cotton Club



*

p.33, Harlem Blackbirds 36

Ccorrect order of engagements: Nice, opening 9 April 1936, transferring to Alcazar de Paris, 19 April 1936, transferring to Liège where it folded

*

p.33, 51, Harmony Kings clarification
The original Four Harmony Kings were vocalists Ivan Browning (1st tenor), William Berry (2nd tenor)
Charles Drayton (baritone), William Hand (bass). They recorded in New York and London in 1919 and the 1920s. Berry worked again
with Crowder in Sweden in 1938 in a vocal trio with George Dosher who was a member of the Four Harmony Kings at least in 1929
see itinerary fol.

*

p.36, Arthur Briggs clarification
Briggs liked to say that he was American but he was resident in USA for just two years before first visiting Europe in 1919
He was born in Grenada and held a British passport which would explain his arrest in 1940 before USA entered the war

*

p.36, footnote read see bibliography Green (1985) [not see Green (1985) p.96]

*

pp.36, 37, John Welsh [aka Welch] clarification
John Welsh wrote a series of six articles, about his life as an African-American studying
classical piano in Germany during the 1930s. He wrote under the name John Welch, “I Lived:
12 Years Under Hitler”, Pittsburgh Courier, vol. 35, nos. 17–22 (Pittsburg, 22 April–27 May 1944.
His real name was Welsh. This is the name George Lukes remembers him using in Laufen, which he also
used in later life. Welsh’s sister Elisabeth did not like the family name. Throughout her distinguished
professional singing career she went by the name Welch, the name her brother took for his articles
Under the name Welch, he was also partly the subject of the following report of repatriation on MS Gripsholm:
Rita Rodriquez, “FBI Holds Ex-Nazi Prisoner: Musician Queried on Acts Abroad:
Nazi Concentration [sic: POW Internment] Camp Victims Express Joy To Be Home; Tell Horrors”,
New York Amsterdam News (New York, 25 March 1944)

*

pp.37, 38, 70–77, 95, Repatriation
A report of the repatriation of African-Americans on MS Gripsholm appeared in Norfolk New Journal and Guide
in addition to the captioned photo shown here
Add to bibliography
Anon., “Negro Americans Aboard Gripsholm”, Norfolk New Journal and Guide (Norfolk, 25 March 1944), incl. photo



*

pp.37, 38, 70–77, 95, Repatriation
A report of the repatriation of African-Americans on MS Gripsholm appeared in Pittsburgh Courier
Add to bibliography
Evelyn Sherrer, “Authorities Hold Three Repatriates / Thirteen Return from German Prison Camps”,
Pittsburgh Courier, vol. 35, no. 13 (Pittsburgh, 25 March 1944), incl.
information, interview quotes, photos; no Crowder photo
The part specifically referring to Crowder reads
Henry Crowder, formerly of Washington, D.C., has lived abroad for 12 years, most of which was spent in Brussels, Belgium.
He is a musician who has seen most of the European cities. Crowder was interned for 22 ½ months, first in Belgium
and later in Germany. But for the Red Cross food packages, Crowder said, they would have had to subsist on potatoes
and thin soup. And, although living quarters were not comfortable, he continued, he received no worse treatment than
did white prisoners. The Gestapo and the German guards never took action in the camps on an exclusively racial issue. In
traveling from camp to Lisbon, where the Gripsholm was birthed, Crowder said that the cities of Augsburg and Stuttgart, in
Germany, were “flattened out” by Allied planes. Besides the fact that German morale was very low, Crowder said,
many civilians with whom he had spoken expressed a desire to see American parachutists land in Germany.
German guards in the Tittmoning camp told Crowder that a month before the repatriates left Lisbon, five Negro fliers
of the American Air Force were brought down by German anti-aircraft fire: three were killed and two were captured.

*

Two minutes of silent footage in March of Time outtakes of Crowder being interviewed by Evelyn Sherrer on his return to USA on 15 March 1944 have surfaced

https://collections.ushmm.org/search/catalog/irn1003941

*

p74

Many, but not yet all, drawings by Josef Nassy are available online at the following link. They include a second sketch of Freddy Johnson. Other sketches probably include two or more with Henry Crowder.

https://collections.ushmm.org/search?q=74916&search_field=Parent+Catalog+ID

More drawings and paintings, including musicians are available at the following link:

https://rdc.reed.edu/search?s=e97356bac174a9180bcaeaad6c2a202de783c4e7&p=1&pp=20

Sarah Phillips Casteel has identified a painting believed to show Johnny Mitchell playing guitar and Henry Crowder reading, also at the following link:

https://associationforjewishstudies.org/docs/default-source/ajs-perspectives/art-issue/casteel-ajs_perspectives_fall_2021_web-20.pdf?sfvrsn=2b76bf64_6

*

pp.38, 95, 127, Mrs Frankie Turner Crowder, clarification
Several sources, incl. see p.14 above, confirm that Frankie Crowder is indeed Mary Frances Crowder
She designed and made dresses for Eleanor Roosevelt from 1933 and was also a singer
Grateful acknowledgement to Val Wilmer for uncovering most of these accounts
Add all to bibliography

Five photos with captions depicting her appeared, among other stories, in
“Photo News: Mrs. Roosevelt’s Seamstress Makes a Dress”, Baltimore Afro-American (27 February 1937), 17

The following paragraph is extracted from
Alice Maree, “Shriners Give Brilliant Affair”, Atlanta Daily World (28 November 1937), 3
account of Benefit Cabaret Ball at Club Top Hat, Atlanta, given by
Ancient Egyptian Arabic Order Nobles of the Mystic Shrine
Mrs. Frankie Turner Crowder of Washington, D.C., was another prominent visitor present.
Mrs. Crowder is the wife of the well known pianist of America and Europe, Henry Crowder,
and is the modist for Mrs. Eleanor Roosevelt at the White House.

The following photo appeared in
“Sang at President’s Birthday”, Baltimore Afro-American (12 February 1938), 16



captioned
Pictured above is Frankie Crowder, personal employee of Mrs. Franklin D. Roosevelt,
who recently sang on the musical program presented at the White House for
the President’s surprise birthday dinner held last week.

The following paragraph is extracted from
Oziel Fryer Woolcock, “Social Swirl”, Atlanta Daily World (1 August 1954), 3
Mrs. Frankie M. Crowder is in the city visiting John Brittain and his daughter. Her visit is timely
since she is planning and designing a number of garments for Mary Ellen, who is getting married
this month. Mrs. Crowder designed and made many dresses for Mrs. Eleanor Roosevelt
when she was our First Lady. She is the niece of the late Mrs. Ida Griffin Brittain.

Obituary
“Mrs. Crowder succumbs at 65”, Washington Afro-American (2 April, 1957), 2
Mrs. M. Frankie Crowder, 447 Delafield Pl. NW, dressmaker for
Mrs. Franklin Deleanor [sic] Roosevelt, died Saturday after a week’s illness. She was 65.
Dressmaker for the ex-First Lady for 12 years, Mrs. Crowder became a White House seamstress in 1933
and served until the death of president Franklin D. Roosevelt.
* * *
She was the widow of Henry Crowder, musician who had performed both in Europe and in this country. Mrs. Crowder formerly
sang with several church and community choruses, including the now disbanded Dean Lawson Community Chorus.
* * *
Born in Atlanta, Ga., Mrs. Crowder had lived in the District over 40 years. She studied sewing at the Nannie Burroughs
Training School. She was a member of the Second Baptist Church Industrial Club, and Professional Women's Club.
Her survivors are a son, Henry Crowder, and two grandchildren, Delores [sic] and Doris Ann.

*

p.46, l.33, read decision [not discussion]

*

p.46, & elsewhere, Memory Blues aka Boeuf sur le Toit

During her research at HRC Texas for editing Nancy Cunard: Selected Poems (Manchester, Carcanet, 2016), Sandeep Parmar uncovered manuscripts and typescripts variously titled The Boeuf Blues, Boeuf Blues, Memory Blues, though none titled Boeuf sur le Toit, which appears within the poem and on the 78 Sonabel label. It is though incorrect to view this as a reference to the ballet of that name as Parmar, and at least one other, suggests. It is a direct reference only to the Paris bar of that name.

*

p.47, and two Index references, read Lewis Allan [not Allen]

*


p.49, read Duke Ellington Mondays and Thursdays [not Mondays and Fridays] and
Doc Perry Wednesdays and Fridays [not just Wednesdays]

*

Itinerary

p.50, Bateau Ivre, Crowder played there through at least late April 1930 (NYAN, 23 Apr 30)

p.50 Add
Paris – Théâtre des Champs-Elysées – Crowder one of nearly two hunded black entertainers at flood benefit concert – April 1930 (NYAN, 23 Apr 30)
others incl. orchestras of James Boucher and Noble Sissle – see also bibliography and photo fol.

p.51, 1st item, The show, Black and White Birds Revue, headed by Adelaide Hall, was staged by Arthur Bradley, brother of Buddy Bradley
It opened in Paris, February 1936 and transferred to Switzerland for what should have been an extensive tour of Switzerland
In fact, following a ten day engagement in Basel, seemingly at Rex Theater, it broke up in Zurich. It appears to have
opened in Basel on 8 February and closed there 17 or 18 February 1936 and may have closed Zurich 27 February 1936

p.51, 2nd item, There is some confusion about dates of the Louis Douglass revue. One report has its
debut for a fifteen-day engagement in Nice on 9 April 1936, which cannot, in the event, be correct

p.51 Add
Crowder made a provincial tour of Swedish towns and villages as part of a vocal harmony trio with
William Berry and George Dosher, Saturday and Sunday nights, 23 May 1938–end July 1938
Fee Skr85 each, each working day. Tour manager Elof Nilsson. A six-piece Swedish band shared the engagements
Maximum twenty venues, probably local sports and social clubs, incl. Hässleholm, Kristianstad, Västra Karup, Trelleborg
Lund, Falkenberg, Ängelholm, Laholm, Simlångsdalen, Jönköping, Linköping, Södertälje, Uppsala
William Berry was second tenor with the Four Harmony Kings with whom Crowder worked in 1936
The Four Harmony Kings recorded in New York and London in 1919 and the 1920s. George Dosher was a vocalist in the Paul Robeson
manner who was a member of the Four Harmony Kings at least in 1929. He recorded solo in London in 1929 and 1933
Research assistance courtesy Björn Englund and Howard Rye

Brussels – Le VIIe Bal du Tennis – trio – 4 February 1939 – announced in La Nation Belge, 1 February 1939

Brussels – L’Atelier – orchestra directed by W. H. Crowder – ads found in Le Soir, 4 July 1941, L’Echo de la Bourse, 24 September, 1 October 1941

*

pp.54, 55, credits, read James Dapogny [not John Farrell]

*

p.56, credit, read Mike Montgomery and Alfred Lemmon [not John Farrell and Karl Kramer]

*

p.60, Second incarnation of the Alabamians
There exists a photo, dated c.spring 1929, depicting twenty-nine African-American musicians in Paris, without instruments
The photo includes the second Alabamians’ personnel of South, King, Spaulding, Conaway and Bourke
It is reproduced, slightly cropped, in
Bo Lindström and Dan Vernhettes, Traveling Blues: The Life and Music of Tommy Ladnier (Paris, Jazz’Edit, 2009)

*

p.81, last caption line, read You’re [not Your’e]

*

Bibliography
Add also relevant entries noted above
Works surveying the milieu, history or sociology of the period, which reference Crowder and Cunard, continue to pour forth
They will not generally be noted unless they offer new or substantial insights. Most appear to be unaware of our research
Two works of fiction that reference Crowder, in addition to the many that reference Cunard alone, are not currently noted

We have also learnt of the existence of at least one further unproduced screenplay about Crowder and Cunard

p.94, Gordon (1929) read see p.30 in the present volume [not p.94]

p.94 Add
Anon., “200 Performers Thrill French with Music and Mimicry at Paris Benefit”, New York Amsterdam News (23 April 1930)
incl. Crowder at Théâtre des Champs-Elysées
this accompanying photo, at the benefit for victims of the floods that swept Southern and Central France, 4–10 March 1930
prob. includes Crowder – see also itinerary prec.



p.94 Add
Edgar A. Wiggins, “Hands Across the Ocean”, Philadelphia Tribune (Philadelphia, 20 February 1936)
account of Arthur Bradley revue incl. Crowder orchestra leader

p.94 Add
Edgar Wiggins, “Across the Pond”, Chicago Defender (Chicago, 14 March 1936)
account of break up of Arthur Bradley revue

p.94 Add
Edgar A. Wiggins, “Hands Across the Ocean”, Philadelphia Tribune (Philadelphia, 23 April 1936)
account of Louis Douglass revue dress rehearsal at Variety Theatre, Paris, incl. Crowder piano

p.94 Add
Nancy Cunard, “Parisians Peek at ‘Blackbirds’: Louis Douglass Version Is Vivid Entertainment Nancy Cunard Says”,
New York Amsterdam News (13 June 1936) and other A-A newspapers
review of appearance at Alcazar, Paris, incl. Crowder at one of two pianos (the second pianist is now known to be Garnet Clark)
written the year following Cunard and Crowder’s final separation

p.96, Green (1985) read essentially Green (1984) [not (1983)]

p.99 Add
François Buot, Nancy Cunard (Paris, Pauvert, 2008)
servicable first French biography which draws on sources available before 2007

p.99 Add
Peggy Lou, “Nancy Cunard: Dreaming about Africa”, in Kapabah [Caravan Stories Magazine], 10 (124) (Moscow, October 2008)
illus. in-depth Russian-language feature, ref. Crowder, in large format huge-circulation fashion and culture magazine
incl. photo of Eddie South and His Alabamians from AB Fable Archive

p.99 Add
Mary Dow Fehsenfeld, Lois More Overbeck, eds., The Letters of Samuel Beckett: Vol. 1, 1929–1940 (Cambridge University Press, 2009)
several refs. Crowder; biographical note on Crowder gives incorrect year of birth and incorrect year of first visit to Europe
we are reliably informed that indexing is inadequate and that other errors include therein an hilariously silly ref. Cunard

p.99 Add
Wendy A. Grossman, Man Ray, African Art, and the Modernist Lens
(Washington, D.C., International Arts & Artists, distr. Minneapolis, Un. Minnesota Press, 2009)
exhibition catalogue, incl. section "Henry-Music and All that Jazz", incl. ref. Listening for Henry Crowder

p.99 Add
Gérard Régnier, Jazz et société sous l’Occupation (Paris, L’Harmattan, 2009)
period context

p.99 Add
Yannick Séité, Le jazz, à la lettre: La littérature et le jazz (Paris, Presses Universitaires de France, 2010)
ground-breaking historical survey, incl. accurate in-depth consideration of Crowder and Cunard

p.99 Add
Anthony Barnett, “‘Now Here Is Some Curious English’:
Henry Crowder, Norman Douglas and Some Others of Nancy Cunard’s Literary Circle”
in Norman Douglas: 6. Symposium, Bregenz und Thüringen, Vlbg. 15./16. 10. 2010
(Feldkirch/Graz, W. Neugebauer Verlag GesmbH, 2011)

p.99 Add
Carla Kaplan, Miss Anne in Harlem: The White Women of the Black Renaissance (New York, & London, HarperCollins, 2013)
our assistance, sought in a shabby manner but nevertheless given, is not acknowledged though our book is noted in the bibliography

p.99 Add

Anthony Barnett, “Beckett and Jazzality”

in Barnett, Antonyms Anew: Barbs & Loves (Lewes, E. Suss., Allardyce Book ABP, 2016)

critique of the content of Beckett and Musicality, ed. Sara Jane Bailes and Nicholas Till (Ashgate, 2014)

fruit of the Beckett and Music Symposium at University of Sussex, 27 February 2009 — see below

p.99 Add

Nick Dellow, “Amongst the Hellish Noise of a Jazz Band: Montmartre in the 1920s and the Bechet–McKendrick Gunfight”

in The Frog Blues and Jazz Annual Number 4 (Fleet, Hants., Frog Records, 2015) thorough survey with newly discovered documentation

p.99 Add

Anthony Barnett, “Henry Crowder’s Letters to Nancy Cunard”, in Snow lit rev, no. 4 (Lewes, E. Suss, Spring 2016)

simultaneous repr. in Anthony Barnett, Antonyms Anew: Barbs & Loves (Lewes, E. Suss., Allardyce Book ABP, 2016)

scrutinizes the content and context of a cache of previously undescribed letters, postcards, telegrams sold at auction in 2015

p.99 Add

Jane Marcus, Nancy Cunard: Perfect Stranger, ed. Jean Mills (Clemson University Press, 2020)

This book has a chequered history. It was originally written in the 1990s, recast in the 2000s, not completed, in part because of the author’s health. Marcus died in 2015. The book was scheduled for publication at Rutgers University Press but was cancelled. It has now appeared from Clemson. There are 72 references to Crowder, of which none are to our research, although in 2007 the author, through her Rutgers’ editor, knew of the impending publication that year of our book, and an, at the time, earlier preliminary online article. The book is not available for further consideration here

p.99 Add

Anne de Courcy, Five Love Affairs and a Friendship: The Paris Life of Nancy Cunard, Icon of the Jazz Age (London, Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 2022; New York, St Martin’s Press, 2023, under the title Magnificent Rebel: Nancy Cunard in Jazz Age Paris)

Superficial, derivative, poorly documented. Our research is not referenced

p.99 Add
Other
Anthony Barnett, “Only Poet, Shining Whore”
presentation of Crowder’s settings of poems by Beckett and Cunard given at
Beckett and Music Symposium
Centre for Research in Opera and Music Theatre, University of Sussex, England, 27 February 2009

p.99 Add
Other
Anthony Barnett, “‘Now Here Is Some Curious English’:
Henry Crowder, Norman Douglas and Some Others of Nancy Cunard’s Literary Circle”
presentation of Crowder and Cunard and some of their literary friendships given at
Norman Douglas: Sixth Symposium
Villa Falkenhorst, Thüringen, Austria, 16 October 2010

p.99 Add

Other

“L’Atlantic noir de Nancy Cunard: Negro Anthology 1931–1934” in Gradhiva, 19 (Paris, Musée du Quai Branly, 2014)

documents the exhibition of that name, 4 March–18 May 2014, though not all materials exhibited and in Gradhiva match

Our assistance was given for recordings played during the exhibition and photo identifications

p.100, l.6, read unnumbered [not nnumbered]

p.100, Further identified copies of Henry-Music
Unnumbered copy inscribed: “for Samuel Beckett” in The Ohio State University Libraries
Unnumbered copy inscribed: “For Augustus John, an artist that belongs very much to us all.
A real genuine person. I appreciate him very highly and honestly.” sold at auction in USA in 1977
Unnumbered copy inscribed to Roy Randall, along the lines “happily met”, sold by a book dealer in UK in 1980s or 1990s
Unnumbered copy, signed, not inscribed, in the library of Neil Ritchie, South Africa as at 2010
Unnumbered copy [?inscribed] from library of Constance Bullock-Davies sold at auction in UK in 2001
Copy no. ?, inscribed to ?, in National Library of Ireland; Copy no. ?, sold at auction in USA in 1966
Copy no. ?, sold at auction in UK in 1995; Copies nos. ?, ?, sold by a book dealer in UK in 1980s or 1990s
Copy no. ?, sold at auction in USA in 1996; Copy no. 33 sold by a book dealer in USA in 2008
Copy no. 57 in the private collection of a London book dealer as at 2009; Copy no. 99, sold at auction in UK in 1996
Copies, status unknown, are known to be held by the following libraries
Atlanta University; Boston Public Library; Brown University; Columbia University; Emory University
Harvard University; Indiana University; McMaster University; Miami University
New York Public Library; Penn State University; Southern Illinois University; University of Alberta
University of California at Los Angeles; University of Delaware; University of Nebraska
University of Oxford; Washington University; Yale University

*

In 2011 a copy of Negro from a private English collection was offered for sale by a
French antiquarian bookseller carrying the dedication: Henry – your own. / Nancy.

*

Notice to Media and Arts Organisations
It is with alarm and regret that we report time wasting and potentially abusive experiences relating to our Crowder research
by two film producers, four screenwriters and dramatists, two broadcasters, one historian, four fine arts organisations
We shall no longer countenance approaches about which we have the slightest suspicion of untoward behaviour

Our copyrights are fiercely protected

*

Read AB’s criticism of Lois Gordon’s biography of Nancy Cunard at Amazon

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