Natalie Clifford Barney 1876to –1972
American writer and influential Parisian salon host. As a small child, she had a run in with Oscar Wilde during his lecture tour of America. He told her children’s stories, and encouraged her mother to become a painter. Barney grew up with wealth, learning both English and French, and knew at a young age that she was a lesbian. Her first relationship was at 17. At 23, she dressed as a page and presented herself to one of the most beautiful and famous women in Paris, the courtesan Liane de Pougy, proclaiming herself a “page of love” sent by Sappho. de Pougy later wrote of the affair in a popular, salacious novel. Barney was determined not to be bothered by her homosexuality or society’s views of it, likening it to something as harmless as being an albino. In 1900 she released her first book, a collection of love poems about women, published under her own name. She would publish several more poetry collections, epigram collections, and memoirs, but she was less interested in writing poetry and more interested in leading a poetic life. In 1909, she moved into 20, Rue Jacob in Paris, which featured a “Temple of Friendship” in the garden. There she hosted weekly literary salons that drew writers from around the world, and lasted for the next 60 years. Visitors included Colette, Gertrude Stein, Marcel Proust only once, Truman Capote in later years, and practically every other important artist that passed through the city. She was especially interested in promoting female writers, and created the informal “Women’s Academy” as a response to the men-only French Academy. Radclyffe Hall used her as inspiration for the character Valérie Seymour in The Well of Loneliness. The salon was a place to hear poetry readings, music performances, and plays, to discuss philosophy and make connections, and to start lesbian trysts. Barney herself did not believe in monogamy, and had a great number of lovers. She once catalogued her relationships as liaisons, demi-liaisons, and adventures. She had a short but passionate romance with the tragic poet Renée Vivien, and a fling with Colette. But her three longest relationships were with the writer Elisabeth de Gramont, with whom Barney wrote up a marriage contract, the painter Romaine Brooks, and Dolly Wilde, Oscar Wilde’s niece. All three relationships were overlapping, lasting until Wilde’s death in 1941, and Gramont’s death in 1954. Barney and Brooks remained a devoted couple for over 50 years.