Natalie Barney

Natalie Barney (born October 31, 1876, Dayton, Ohio, U.S.—died February 2, 1972, Paris, France) was an American-born literary figure and writer who was noted for her international salon, her friendships with several writers, and her unabashed lesbianism.

Barney’s mother was Alice Pike Barney, a portrait painter, her father an industrialist. At age 21, she inherited a fortune and moved to Paris to escape American provincialism. In 1909 she established herself at 20 rue Jacob, which for more than 60 years was the site of her well-attended Friday salon. Most French, American, and British writers of note were included in her circle. She is celebrated in several contemporary works, including Djuna Barnes’s Ladies Almanack, Radclyffe Hall’s The Well of Loneliness, and Renée Vivien’s Une Femme m’apparut (A Woman Appeared to Me). The aging Rémy de Gourmont fell in love with Barney and produced two volumes concerning their platonic relationship: Lettres à l’Amazone (1914) and Lettres intimes à l’Amazone (posthumously published in 1927). Barney’s own writing consists of eight slight volumes that include Quelques Portraits: Sonnets de Femmes (1900), Pensées d’une Amazone (1920; “Thoughts of an Amazon”), and Souvenirs indiscrets (1960).