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Who was Djuna Barnes?

Who was Djuna Barnes?
Although author Djuna Barnes was associated with one of the most celebrated Lesbian social circles of all times and was among the first to write openly about passionate relationships between women, she resisted being characterized as a Lesbian writer. Barnes was born June 12, 1892, on a farm in Cornwall-on-Hudson, N.Y. Her father, an unsuccessful artist, lived together with both his legal wife (Barnes mother) and his mistress. Barnes was home-schooled by her paternal grandmother, a free-thinking feminist and journalist who made a lasting impression on the girl. Her childhood was far from idyllic, however; in her teens, her father pushed her into an arranged marriage, and her later writings suggest she was subjected to sexual abuse. Barnes moved to New York City with her mother and siblings around 1912. There, she studied at the Pratt Institute and the Art Students League, supporting herself as a reporter and illustrator for local newspapers. She soon became renowned for her interviews with members of high society and the Greenwich Village demimonde. She published her first collection of poems and drawings, The Book of Repulsive Women, in 1915, and was a founding member of the Provincetown Players, an experimental theater company. In 1920, Barnes was sent to Paris on assignment for McCalls magazine. Soon after her arrival, she began a relationship with Thelma Wood (nicknamed Simon), an American sculptor and silverpoint artist nine years her junior. Woods affairs with both women and men incited Barnes jealousy, yet their often-stormy relationship - exacerbated by Barnes heavy drinking - endured for nearly a decade. The heart of the jealous knows the best and most satisfying love, that of the others bed, where the rival perfects the lovers imperfections, Barnes wrote. Barnes became acquainted with the Parisian artists community and attended the famous literary salon hosted by wealthy American expatriate Natalie Clifford Barney. She also associated with Barneys Lesbian social circle, which included heiress Peggy Guggenheim, journalist Janet Flanner, and writer Dolly Wilde (Oscars niece). As a working woman, however, she remained somewhat of an outsider. In 1928, Barnes anonymously published Ladies Almanack, an amusing satire about Barneys clique. Natalie probably wont be too upset, Barnes wrote in her journal. I dont think she has ever even read a book; inspite (sic) of that she CONTINUES to get the girlfriends. Indeed, Barney seemed pleased with the work. All ladies fit to figure in such an almanack should of course be eager to have a copy, she wrote, and all gentleman disapproving of them. That same year, Barnes also published her first novel, Ryder, about an eccentric family resembling her own. While sympathetic to the fathers resistance to puritanical morality, she emphasized the traumatic consequences of his infidelity and the pain it caused the women in his life. The book became a best-seller, bringing her financial success and securing her position among the literary avant-garde. In 1931, after splitting up with Wood, Barnes moved into Guggenheims country manor in England, where she began her best-known novel, Nightwood (1936) - one of the first to deal frankly with Lesbianism. The story centers around the tangled relationships among faux aristocrat Felix Volkbein; his American wife, Robin Vote (modeled after Wood); her jealous lover, Nora Flood (Barnes alter ego); and a third member of their love triangle (thought to be modeled after Guggenheim). One of the most memorable characters is Noras confidante, a campy, cross-dressing quack gynecologist who converses with his penis, which he calls Tiny OToole. After being rejected by several publishers, the book was finally accepted by Faber and Faber on the recommendation of author and editor T.S. Eliot. Wood, who had continued to visit and correspond with Barnes after their breakup, felt insulted by the novel and never spoke to her again. While working on Nightwood, Barnes had an affair with Charles Henri Ford, a queer poet some 20 years her junior who served as her personal assistant and typist. Subsequently, illness and the outbreak of World War II caused her to return to New York. Barnes quit drinking, but continued to suffer from poor health and fell into dire financial straits. Though only in her 40s, she became a near-recluse in her small Greenwich Village apartment. She published just one more major work, The Antiphon (1958), a play that revisited the theme of family tragedy. She died in 1982, days after her 90th birthday. In 1961, Barnes was elected to the National Institute of Arts and Letters, but by then she was largely unknown to the public. In the 1970s and 1980s, feminists revived interest in her work, casting her (inaccurately) as an outsider to the mostly male literary establishment. Although she had once said that she was not offended in the least to be thought Lesbian, she became increasingly annoyed at being included in the Lesbian canon, and even tried to get a Greenwich Village Lesbian-feminist bookstore called Djuna Books to change its name. I am not a Lesbian, she came to insist, I just loved Thelma. For further reading: Benstock, Shari. 1987. Women of the Left Bank: Paris, 1900-1940 (University of Texas Press). Broe, Mary Lynn, ed. 1991. Silence and Power: A Reevaluation of Djuna Barnes (Southern Illinois University Press). Herring, Phillip. 1995. Djuna: The Life and Work of Djuna Barnes (Viking). Liz Highleyman is a freelance writer and editor who has written widely on health, sexuality, and politics. She can be reached care of this publication or at PastOut@qsyndicate.com.