Panna Grady O'Connor was born Louise Marie de Cholnoky in 1936 to Louise Marie St. John, an heiress and poet who died at the age of 38, and Dr. Tibor de Cholnoky, a Hungarian doctor. The family lived in Greenwich, CT. Panna—the name a Hungarian diminutive used to distinguish her from her mother—attended Abbot Academy (now Phillips Academy in Andover) from 1951 to 1954. She enrolled at Wellesley for a year, where she studied with Philip Booth, kindling an interest in literature, before leaving for the University of California, Berkeley. In Berkeley she was introduced to the San Francisco beat scene, and in her house on Mosswood Lane she began what she would come to be most well-known for: Throwing parties attended by overlapping literary and artistic circles. According to Andrew Barrow in Quentin and Philip: A Double Portrait, her first party was organized by William Stine, attended by Allen Ginsberg and had as guest of honor Stephen Spender.

She graduated from UC Berkeley in 1959 with a degree in Psychology, though she also studied literature. She had spent her junior year at Columbia University in the School of General Studies and returned to New York after graduation to study acting at the Berkhof School. In an interview1, Panna indicated that there were so many girls who wanted to act that she decided to get involved behind the camera instead, working with sound, bringing her into further contact with New York underground writers, artists, and filmmakers. She married the poet and playwright Jim Grady and in 1963 had a daughter, Ella. The marriage did not last, and Panna moved with Ella into a large apartment in the Dakota building, where she gave her famous parties and where Andy Warhol filmed Poor Little Rich Girl with Edie Sedgwick.

Throughout the early to mid-1960s Panna continued to befriend writers in New York. Through Robert Lowell she met William Burroughs, with whom she became enamored and felt a particular kinship due to their similar social backgrounds (Grady 2016). The two never dated but continued their friendship. Panna had a relationship with John Wieners, which, though brief, appears to have had a strong effect on him. It ended abruptly in 1966, with Wieners in Buffalo and Panna in London with Charles Olson and Ella, taking up residence at Hanover Place. Panna continued her tradition of hosting writers and artists, with Allen Ginsberg staying for a time in the guest house. The relationship with Olson ended not long after the move to London, and in 1967 Panna met Philip O'Connor, with whom she maintained a relationship for over 30 years, until his death in 1998. Shortly after meeting, they moved to France, where they had two children, Maxim and Felix, and where Panna still resides.

Throughout the 1960s and 1970s, Panna was known not only for her parties but for her generosity toward writers, particularly poets. She funded publications as well as made personal loans because she felt that writers were not paid as if writing were a career. She wanted to support working writers. In particular, she paid to publish Herbert Hunke's journal and helped finance Ed Sanders' Fuck You. She also supported O'Connor throughout their partnership. The correspondence in this collection is full of letters from writers asking for and thanking her for loans, revealing decades of patronage. She has remarked, "I had as much as Peggy Guggenheim to start with but Peggy Guggenheim bought paintings and I paid for books to be published" (Barrow 2002).

P. Grady (interview with archivist Marie Elia, June 23, 2016)

Barrow, A. (2002). Quentin & Philip: a double portrait. London: Macmillan.