Mary Duncan, a native San Diegan, grew up in National City, where Henry Miller said he found his identity. She graduated from Sweetwater High School, San Diego State University, San Francisco State University and completed her Ph.D. at United States International University in San Diego.
Her research specialty as a professor at San Diego State University was the “troubles” in Belfast, Northern Ireland and the Irish Republican Army. She focused on the conflict’s impact on children and the internal organization of the I.R.A. and its cell groups. In addition she has researched children and play patterns in Mexican squatter villages, Arab Tourism in London and international terrorism.
In 1982, she moved to La Jolla, a seaside community in San Diego. She met people who introduced her to the worlds of Henry Miller, Simone de Beauvoir, Colette and other writers. And it is in these worlds that she found relief from the stress and uncertainty that emanated from her Belfast research. Paris and La Jolla entered her life almost simultaneously.
In Paris she created a circle of friends and started building a foundation for a life in the City of Light.
After her marriage to Yuri Loskutov, a Russian, she lived in Moscow several months of the year and founded Shakespeare and Company Bookstore Moscow.
Since 2000, when she became a Professor Emeritus from San Diego State University, she has mainly lived in Paris. In 2005, she purchased an archive consisting of audio tapes, photographs and correspondence related to the life of Henry Miller. Some of these materials are described in her memoir, “Henry Miller is Under My Bed: People and Place on the Way to Paris.” (2008).
She says she is happiest when she has her passport and an airline ticket in her pocket. In between her travels, she continues to live in Paris.