Peggy Guggenheim’s and Bryher’s Investment

Abstract

“Peggy Guggenheim’s and Bryher’s Investment: How Financial Speculation Created a Female Modernist Tradition” focuses on the patronage of two wealthy women, Peggy Guggenheim and Bryher, in order to examine how these patrons shaped modernism produced by women. The chapter also considers other female modernists such as H.D. and Mina Loy. I examine how modernist patronage required both a living subsidy and a willingness to provide pipelines to publication. Further, I argue that in these two cases, the source of the money helps predict the mode of patronage and ultimately the canon; the patron’s literary and artistic investment replicates the financial investments from which they derive their fortunes and predicts their willingness to underwrite experimental projects.