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.

[3] She then enrolled at Wellesley College[4] 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.

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.

[12] 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.

[13][6]: 439 Andy Warhol made several films in Grady's Central Park West apartment including Lupe[14] and The Closet.