Adventures of the Mind: The Memoirs of Natalie Clifford Barney (The Cutting Edge : Lesbian Life and Literature)

by Natalie Clifford Barney, John Spalding Gatton (Translator)

In this book, Barney explores her family tree, chronicles her friendships and associations through reprinted correspondence and recreated conversations, and evokes the golden age of her salon in gallery of literary portraits.

Foreword / Karla Jay --
Introduction / Karla Jay --
1. Forewarning --
2. First Adventure: Oscar Wilde in the United States --
3. Pierre Louys circa 1900: Literary Beginnings --
4. Anatole France: Among the Amazons --
5. Remy de Gourmont: The Amazon's Friend --
6. Marcel Proust --
7. Rainer Maria Rilke: Belated Appreciation --
8. Fleg, Then Zangwill, Then Fleg --
9. Gabriele D'Annunzio: At Home --
10. Max Jacob --
11. Doctor Jesus-Christ Mardrus --
12. The Critical State of Andre Rouveyre --
13. Paul Valery: The Dawn of an Academician: An Attempt at Clarification-
14. Legends and Anecdotes, Translators and Detractors --
15. An Academy of Women: Foreword --
16. Lucie Delarue-Mardrus, President --
17. English Bohemian Life and Anna Wickham --
18. Colette --
19. Rachilde --
20. Aurel: Festival in Return --
21. Mina Loy --
22. Elisabeth de Gramont --
23. Djuna Barnes --
24. Gertrude Stein --
25. Romaine Brooks: The Case of a Great Painter of the Human Face --
26. Renee Vivien --
27. Retrospective of Marie Leneru by Magdeleine Marx Paz --
28. P.P.C.: Leave-Taking.

Genres: Nonfiction, Memoir, Lesbian, Queer, Literature, France, Jewish

248 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1929

About the author

Natalie Clifford Barney (31 October 1876 – 2 February 1972) was an American expatriate who lived, wrote and hosted a literary salon in Paris. She was a noted poet, memoirist and epigrammatist.

Barney's salon was held at her home on Paris's Left Bank for more than 60 years and brought together writers and artists from around the world, including many leading figures in French literature along with American and British Modernists of the Lost Generation. She worked to promote writing by women and formed a "Women's Academy" in response to the all-male French Academy while also giving support and inspiration to male writers from Remy de Gourmont to Truman Capote.

She was openly lesbian and began publishing love poems to women under her own name as early as 1900, considering scandal as "the best way of getting rid of nuisances". In her writings she supported feminism, paganism and pacifism. She opposed monogamy and had many overlapping, long and short-term relationships, including an on-and-off romance with poet Renée Vivien and a 50-year relationship with painter Romaine Brooks. Her life and love affairs served as inspiration for many novels, ranging from the salacious French bestseller Sapphic Idyll to The Well of Loneliness, arguably the most famous lesbian novel of the 20th century.[3]

Reviews

[au · Rating 3 out of 5]

i thought i'd like this more than i actually did lol- the sketches felt empty compared to natalie's accounts in souvenirs indiscrets, written 30 years after this one. natalie does preface in the chapter 'academy of women' that she would only like to "arouse attention to them as they pass" and "-which I mask a certain laziness." lol!