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= Mary Low = Mary Low, full name Mary Stanley Low, is a writer, poet, teacher and revolutionary known for her work and publications analyzing surrealism and her involvement in the Spanish Revolution of 1936. Through her work she tackles many issues dealing with surrealism, Marxism and psychoanalysis.

Background
Born in London, England of Australian parents in 1912 and passed away on January 9th, 2007. She is educated in England, France and Switzerland. Mary met Cuban surrealist poet/revolutionary Juan Brea in Paris in 1933, whom she would later marry. Brea was a cofounder of the Cuban “H-Group”, the closest counterpart to surrealism in Cuba and the cofounder of Cuban Trotskyism. She would become friends with Benjamin Péret, Victor Brauner, Óscar Domínguez, Marcelle Ferry, Bohuslav Brouk, Jindrik Heisler and Toyen of the Surrealist Movement in the 1930s.

Spanish Revolution of 1936
Low was part of the Spanish Revolution from 1936 to 1937 alongside Juan Brea. It is during this time in Spain that the two were part of the Partido Obrero de Unificacion Marxista (POUM) [Worker’s Party of Marxist Unification]. Low edited the POUM English-language paper, Spanish Revolution, as well as helped organize the women’s militia. Low and Brea’s Red Spanish Notebook was the first book-length account of the revolution that appeared in English (1937) and was praised by George Orwell.

Cuba
While living in Havana, Cuba, Low had published a collection of poems called La Verdad Contemporanea [Contemporary Truth] in 1943, which was written by Brea and herself. Juan Brea had passed away in Cuba in 1941. It is here she analyzes “The Economic Reasons for Surrealism”, “A Materialist Conception of Art”, “The Economic Causes of Humor” and “Woman and Love Through Private Property”. Low would remarry in Cuba in 1944 with Armando Machado, a Trotskyist trade union leader, and she gained Cuban citizenship. Low took a teaching position in Cuba teaching English and Latin. She stayed in Cuba until 1964, when the Stalinization of the ruling party at the time placed heavy restrictions on intellectual life.

United States
After a brief stay in Australia, Low moved to the United States in 1974 and settled in Miami, Florida. In the United States she participated in the Surrealist Movement and collaborated on a few works. She also returned to teaching in elite private schools for a living. Low collaborated on Arsenal and WHAT Are You Going To Do About It? Mary Low has many works under her belt, including Alchemia del Recuerdo [Alchemy of Memory] (1946, reprinted in 1986), which was illustrated by Wifredo Lam, the trilingual book of poetry Three Voices, Voces, Voix (1957), Where the Wolf Sings: New Poems and Collages (1994), the historical novel In Caesar’s Trail (1996) and several collages which were exhibited in Paris, Chicago, Miami and Montreal.

Publications

 * (1937) Red Spanish Notebook, written by Mary Low and Juan Brea and translated to English by Low
 * (1938) La Saison des Flutes [The Season of Flutes], collection of poems alongside Juan Brea and illustrated by Cuban surrealist Wifredo Lam, which appeared in the Editions Surrealistes
 * (1943) La Verdad Contemporanea [Contemporary Truth], collection of poems alongside Juan Brea
 * (1956 reprinted in 1986) Alchemia del Recuerdo [Alchemy of Memory], illustrated by Wifredo Lam
 * (1957) Three Voices, Voces, Voix, trilingual book of poetry
 * (1994) Where the Wolf Sings: New Poems and Collages
 * (1996) In Caesar’s Trail, historical novel

Collaborations

 * (1936-1937) Spanish Revolution, edited by Mary Low; POUM English-language paper
 * (N.A.) Arsenal
 * (N.A.) WHAT Are You Going To Do About It?