DYKE Nalalienarnev: An American lesbian in Paris PSYCHE BY ESTHER ROTHBLUM aiy Eichbaucr was living in Paris M when she learned that much of the work of Natalie Barney (1876-1972) had never been published in English. She received permission to translate some of Bamey’s writing and to find an English audience for this work. Eichbauer described Natalie Barney’s life and work to me in a recent corre- spondence. “In her last book, Souvenirs indis- crets (lndiscreet Memories), Natalie says that she had always felt drawn to women, from her earliest days. In the first chapter, ‘Renee Vivien,’ she describes an intense crush she had on a beautiful young cousin, how she loved to be close to her and comfort her (the young woman was pining for some young beau). “Natalie fell in love with a school friend when she was 16, at a time when she was being courted for her beauty and inheritance by more than a few young men. She and her friend Eva Palmer spent a summer together in Bar Harbor playing naked in the woods at nymph and shepherd. After that summer, their . respectable families made sure they ‘ were placed in separate boarding schools. “Ironically, her father’s own egotism finally gave Barney the chance she need; 4 ed to begin her preferred way of life. to his beloved London and so bored. with the business of parenting that he left Natalie at a boarding house under scant supervision, supposing her to be occu- .pied with shoppingand fittings for a gown for her Washington debut “Instead, Natalie visited,Carmen, an artist’s model who had posed for her Natalie intoherbed and educated her in some of the ways of the world. _(According to Jean Chalon, Natalie was- n’t quite sure that she could make love to a woman without getting pregnant!) She walked home from her first meeting with Carmen repeating to herself, spellbound: ‘I have a mistress, l have a mistress.’ “Next, she fell madly in love with Liane de Pougy, a celebrated courtesan. Liane took Natalie for a ride in her car- riage through the Bois de Boulogne, and their . affair began. Later, Liane wrote her than her writing. She described the process of writing a book as one of cleaning out her desk drawers. Her writ- ing is seldom sustained; she expressed herselfin sharp lightning-bolts of intelli- gence. In her introduction to Souvenirs, she says, ‘If too little ofthe love I invoke appears in this book, it is because 1 have better spent it elsewhere. Here there her family lived in Washington, D.C. and _ ldylle saphique (Sapphic Idyll), a novel about her ‘Flossie.’ It was the first of many literary tributes dedicated to Barney over the years. Renee Vivien, Djuna Barnes, Radclyffe Hall and Lucie Delarue- Mardrus wrote novels featuring Barney as a character. “Barney’s father never forgave her for causing a scandal back home. In fact, he bought up all the copies of Liane’s book he could find, along with the printing plates, and had them BOOKS BY AND ABOUT BARNEY: Natalie Barney. Adventures of the Mind. Tr. john Spaulding Gatton. New York: New York University Press, I992. Natalie Barney. The One Who Is Legion or A.D.’S Afterlife. I930; Orono, Me.: U of Maine, National Poetry Foundation, I987. 000 a good movie! has all the essential GLBT films Natalie Barney. A Perilous Advantage: The Best of Natalie Clifford Barney. Edited and translated by Anna Livia. Introduction by Karla jay. Norwich, Vt.: New Victoria Pub., I992. Karla jay. The Amazon and the Page: Natalie Clifford Barney and Renée Vivien. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, I988. Albert Barney was so eager to get back A mother. The beautiful Carmen welcomed- destroyed. Too late- the book had already been circulated widely. .; ’ . ‘ ’ “The greatest passion of Bamey’s youth, however, was Renée Vivien, another,‘ expatriate in Paris. The first chapter of Souvenirs indiscrets ‘describes their affair in detail. Natalie’s affair with Vivien was tempestuous and involved‘ frequent separations. Although they loved each other dearly, they were ‘essen- tially incompatible. Natalie’ refused to pass up any chance for pleasure that «came her way;iRenée eventually left her for another woman.,Renée' died young 0 anorexia and alcoholism.” . v “Natalie’s life was more important to remain only fragmentsL”7. Because of the importance of her salon, Bamey is mentioned at least in passing, in most accounts of American expatriates in Paris. V ‘ Esther R’a'thbIum is Professor of M I Psychology at the University of Vermont and Editor of the Journal of Lesbian Studies. She can be reaghed at John Dewey Hall, University of I l{e"rmi_'2nt,- 0 Burlington, ‘ VT email? 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