Mary Beach Was born in Hartford, Connecticut in 1919. In 1925, after her mother's divorce, she moved to
France. During the first part of World War II she lived in the small town of St. Jean de Luz, but, with the
entrance of the United States in the war in 1941, she was soon viewed as a suspicious alien and was, for a
time, interned in a Nazi prison camp.
Despite her parents protests (but perhaps under the influence of her relative Sylvia Beach - famed
proprietor of Paris's Shakespeare & Co. and the first publisher of James Joyce), Mary pursued her life as an
artist with great passion and from an early age. Her first solo show was at the Galerie du Bearn, in Pau,
France in 1943, and she has since then continuously exhibited her work all over the world: New York,
Algeria, Paris, Brussels, Caen, Strasbourg, Vienna, Grenoble...
Mary returned to the United States in 1946, where she married Alain Beach (an American war hero she had
met in France) and had two children. She attended the Hartford Art School, where she won first prize in her
class, and also attended school at the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston.
In 1957 Mary and her family returned to France, to Strasbourg, and then to Paris in 1959. She attended the
esteemed Grande Chaumiere, where she studied under Henri Goetz. She exhibited at the historic Salon des
Indepentes in Paris in both 1957 and 1958; won the Prix du Dome at the Salon des Femmes Peintres in
1959; won 1st Prize, Vichy, France, Silver Medal in 1959 as well; and was exhibited at the Salon des
Suindependents in Paris in 1960.
These early accomplishments stand alone, and would be exemplary for any artist. But for an American
woman in France - for a wife and mother in the late 1950's anywhere - Mary's success in the male-dominated
art world is truly astounding. She is one of the great pioneers of her generation, both as a woman and as an
artist.
After the loss of her first husband, Mary met Claude Pelieu. While living with Claude she continued to work
and exhibit all over the world (Galerie du Moulin Rouge "off" Biennale de Paris; Suzan Cooper Gallery in New
York; Galerie Wandragore, Rouen; etc., etc.). During this time she worked at City Lights, in San Francisco,
where she discovered and published the poet Bob Kaufman and, under her own imprint of Beach Books,
published William Burroughs. She also collaborated extensively with Allen Ginsberg.
Today, Mary lives and works in Norwich, New York.
