| Natalie Barney |
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| CATEGORIES ABOUT NATALIE CLIFFORD BARNEY | |
| 1876 births | |
| 1972 deaths | |
| american expatriates in france | |
| lesbian writers | |
| lgbt writers from the united states | |
| lgbt writers from france | |
| people from dayton, ohio | |
| polyamory | |
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Natalie Clifford Barney {Link without Title} ( 31 October 1876 – 2 February 1972 ) was an American expatriate who lived, wrote, and ran a famous salon at 20 Rue Jacob in Paris at the turn of the 20th Century . She was a poet, memoirist and epigrammatist, but believed her life was her true work of art. Barney was publicly lesbian, and worked to revive a literary history for women. She was especially interested in the poems of Sappho and tried to recreate a school of women poets like the one that Sappho had on Mytilene. Barney was also infamous for her many conquests in love, including poet Renee Vivien , dancer Liane de Pougy and painter Romaine Brooks . WRITING Her literary career began as a result of her friendship with poet Rémy De Gourmont , who gave her the nickname "The Amazon ." Barney wrote almost exclusively in French. Most of her plays and poetry collections have never been translated, and are still only available in French. LOVERS It was well known that Barney was s brother, Willie Wilde). {Link without Title} Renée Vivien For several years she was involved in a relationship with poet Renée Vivien . According to information of the time, her break up with Vivien was not of her choosing, and she attempted (unsuccessfully) to get Vivien back for years, right up until Vivien's death in 1909 . The two had been involved in an ''open relationship'', both taking other lovers from time to time. However Vivien allegedly preferred they change that to a more committed one on one relationship. Barney, however, continued to see other women, and Vivien broke off the affair. It was only after the relationship ended that Barney aggressively pursued Vivien, which included correspondence and letters begging Vivien to reconsider. {Link without Title} Romaine Brooks However, her best known relationship was with the American painter Romaine Brooks , and they were together for fifty-one years. Brooks' portrait of Barney is one of her finest and best known paintings. Natalie Barney published several books of verse and drama, as well as her Memoir s. SALON It was as the hostess of a weekly Friday Salon that she is best remembered. Cultural celebrities as varied known to have been guests there are; Auguste Rodin , Rainer Maria Rilke , Colette , James Joyce , Paul Valéry , the Sitwell siblings, Pierre Louÿs , Anatole France , Count Robert De Montesquiou , Edna St. Vincent Millay , Gertrude Stein , Alice B. Toklas , Somerset Maugham , T. S. Eliot , Ford Madox Ford , Isadora Duncan , Ezra Pound , Virgil Thomson , Jean Cocteau , Max Jacob , André Gide , William Carlos Williams , Djuna Barnes , George Antheil , Janet Flanner , Nancy Cunard , Peggy Guggenheim , Mina Loy , Caresse and Harry Crosby , Marie Laurencin , Oscar Milosz , Paul Claudel , Adrienne Monnier , Sylvia Beach , F. Scott Fitzgerald , Sinclair Lewis , Sherwood Anderson , Hart Crane , Alan Seeger , Mary McCarthy , Truman Capote , Françoise Sagan , and Marguerite Yourcenar . It was here that Ezra Pound met his life long companion Olga Rudge . .]] LITERARY PORTRAITS Barney's life has provided inspiration for many writers, and she is portrayed in many novels of the time, including Liane De Pougy 's ''Idylle sapphique'' (''Sapphic Idyll'', 1901), Colette 's ''Claudine s'en va'' (''Claudine and Annie'', 1903), Radcliffe Hall 's ''The Well of Loneliness'' (1928), Djuna Barnes 's ''Ladies Almanack'', and Lucie Delarue Mardrus 's ''L'Ange et les pervers'' (''The Angel and the Perverts'', 1930). WORKS Works in French
Available in English translation
FURTHER READING
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