Kay Boyle and Mary Reynolds: Friendship Intensified by War

Abstract

In this article, I explore the friendship that existed between Kay Boyle and Mary Reynolds, primarily during World War II. For both of them, their engagement in the war, Boyle as an anti-Fascist fiction writer, and Reynolds as a participant in the French Resistance, shifted their sense of citizenship—as women, as women sharing allegiances both to France and the U.S., and as engaged people. This reading expands our understanding of wartime citizenship for those who aspire to a heterogeneous, democratic polity.

Keywords

• Kay Boyle
• friendship
• Mary Reynolds
• Janet Flanner
• Marcel Duchamp
• Man Ray