Panna Grady

Panna Grady O'Connor is known for her work supporting poets in the 1960s and 1970.

Early life Panna Grady O'Connor was born Louise Marie de Cholnoky in 1936. Her parents were the heiress and poet Louise Marie St. John, who died at the age of 38, and the Hungarian doctor Tibor de Cholnoky. The family lived in Greenwich, Connecticut. Panna, a Hungarian pet name used to distinguish herself from her mother, She then enrolled at Wellesley College for a year and studied there with the poet and educator Philip Booth, who aroused an interest in literature in her, whereupon she moved to the University of California, Berkeley where she graduated in 1959.

In Berkeley she came into contact with the Beat Generation from neighboring San Francisco. In her house on Mosswood Lane she threw parties for the local literary and artistic scene. Andrew Barrow notes in Quentin and Philip: A Double Portrait that their first party, organized by William Stine, was also attended by Allen Ginsberg and, as guest of honor, Stephen Spender. whom she loved though they were not a couple.

Grady had a relationship with John Wieners which ended after Grady had an abortion and she moved to London with Charles Olson and Ella, where they settled in Covent Garden. While in London she also hosted writers and artists there, including Allen Ginsberg. Her partnership with Olson ended shortly after moving to London. Gysin would later note that Mick Jagger was referring to Grady when he sang "I know you think you are the queen of the underground" in his song Dead Flowers. and The Closet.

During the 1960s and 1970s, Grady was known not only for her parties but also for her generosity towards writers and especially poets including Herbert Huncke, and Ed Sanders' avant-garde magazine Fuck You: A Magazine of the Arts.

In a conversation shared in Andrew Barrow's 2022 book, she is quoted as saying "I had as much as Peggy Guggenheim at the beginning, but Peggy Guggenheim bought paintings and I paid to publish books."