The Amazon of Letters: The Life and Loves of Natalie Barney

by George Wickes

Natalie Barney came to Paris from America in 1894, a young woman possessed of beauty, brilliance, wealth. She was also the most notorious lesbian of her age. She attracted the admiration of leading men of letters of the day, commanded a salon that became a center of cultural life, and herself made life and conversation a delightful form of art. But the heart of Natalie Barney's life centered in a different area. For Natalie was not only a pioneering feminist, she was an insatiable, immensely skillful desuctress whose list of female conquests was extraordinary both for quality and quantity. Now for the first time her full story is told.

Genres: Biography, Nonfiction, Lesbian, LGBT, Biography Memoir

Paperback

First published December 1, 1976

Reviews

[Bandit · Rating 3 out of 5]

Natalie Barney was an absolutely fascinating figure and, though I don't particularly care for biographies, I wanted to read this book, which in fact did the subject justice and provided a very interesting and balanced look at The Amazon of Letters. Also known as a Female Don Juan, Barney was as famous for her numerous and wildly dramatic love affairs as she was for her input on a literary scene. She lived a long and happy (it seems) life, American ex patriot, who chose Paris as her home and remains loyal to it to the end, surviving two wars. What's particularly fascinating about her is that Barney was neither a great beauty nor a phenomenal writing talent, albeit a very talented epigrammatist, much like her favorite Oscar Wilde. Basically the woman got along on her family's wealth and her seemingly boundless charm. Her romantic conquests were legendary and seemingly everyone, man and women (with exception of Truman Capote who met her late in life and didn't seem all that impressed), fell under her spell. In this well researched book, the author spends about 230 pages on fairly straight up narrative biographic facts and then remaining 70 pages on interviews with her contemporaries (living at the time of book's publication in the 1970s), so that the reader gets a really well rounded perspective. There is also an insert with some photos and portrait reproductions. I think as far as biographies go, this one did an excellent job of fleshing out a captivating, enchanting and complex character with personal charisma reserve the size of Australia. Anyone interested in lesbian history, bygone Paris literary scene, European writers and artists of that era or just wanting to discover a world now irrevocably lost, a world where conversation was an art form and art was all around, a world of literary salons and wild characters and scandalous and grand love affairs, would be interested in this book. Recommended.

[mercedes · Rating 3 out of 5]

I give it three stars just for being what it is, and for being the first. But if you're looking for an excellent biography of Natalie Clifford Barney, I'd recommend "Wild Heart" by Suzanne Rodriguez. An additional note: Berthe Cleryrergue, Natalie's longtime housekeeper, allegedly didn't like this book because she found it sensationalized too much!

[Christine · Rating 3 out of 5]

Natalie Barney is famous for being an out lesbian American in Paris during the Victorian and Modern eras, for holding a literary salon in her home for nearly 50 years, and for having many many love affairs. Homosexuality was not a crime in France, but Natalie's considerable inherited wealth made it possible for her to live independently, free from the necessity of marriage.

It's hard to tell whether, in this book, it's the protagonist or the author who is superficial and lazy. I suspect a bit of both. Natalie, as portrayed by this (male) author, was an intense seductress who rarely maintained a romantic relationship for longer than a few years, was incapable of monogamy, and though charming and witty in conversation, was rather less so in her literary endeavors. Still, she cultivated many long and productive friendships - with Romaine Brooks, Remy de Gourmont, Colette, and other French people of letters who were unfamiliar to me - and created a space for other wealthy lesbians to meet, talk, have affairs and rivalries, and be safe and accepted. She was notorious in Paris for having a well-publicized affair with the famous courtesan Liane de Pougy while still in her early 20s.

Most interesting to me were her friendships with Gertrude Stein and Radclyffe Hall and her love affair/friendship with the painter Romaine Brooks. She also knew Mata Hari, Colette, Ezra Pound, Dolly Wilde, Renee Vivien, and Djuna Barnes, among many other American, British, and French artists. It's hard to know how to read what the author calls Barney's "inconstancy." Is it lack of loyalty, coldness, financial privilege or simply a free and uncompromising spirit? I don't know, but I couldn't help but be turned off by some of Natalie Barney's behavior. For example, one of her greatest and longest love affairs, with Romaine Brooks, ended in bitterness when Natalie took her last lover - she was well into her 90s at the time - leaving Romaine to die alone. She had no political opinions - though she lived through BOTH world wars - and never attended funerals. In some ways she seems like a superficial asshole, rich and privileged enough to avoid many of life's calamities. In other ways I have to admire her boldness.

[C.E. · Rating 4 out of 5]

The Amazon of Letters serves as a good introduction to Natalie Clifford Barney's life for those interested. I really appreciated the heavy use of primary sources (including interviews!) which led to a better understanding of how those around Barney perceived her and her literary salon. I also made note of how respectful the author was in regards to the more sensitive aspects of Barney's personal life (i.e., her liaisons and relationships) and her feminist views. Most of the focus is on her early adulthood and middle-aged years in this book, so don't expect it to be entirely comprehensive. As previously stated, it is a good read to become acquainted with Barney but if someone were to seek a more well-rounded exploration of Miss Barney's life, I would strongly recommend Suzanne Rodriguez's Wild Heart: A Life. I personally enjoyed supplementing Wild Heart with The Amazon of Letters because of the latter's insightful perspectives from those around Barney; ultimately, both biographies serve different but equally good purposes.

[Greg McConeghy · Rating 1 out of 5]

Wickes managed to make Natalie Barney boring. Skip this, and go to 'Wild Heart: A Life: Natalie Clifford Barney and the Decadence of Literary Paris' by Suzanne Rodriquez.

[Rosie · Rating 2 out of 5]

Unfortunately, this book was pretty damn bad. Badly constructed, badly written, and badly edited. It has a long epilogue consisting of interviews with people who knew Natalie Barney, and, as most of these are not tape-recorded but were written afterwards from memory by Wickes, they are vague and poorly summarized. I found Wickes’ writing style unremarkable and even clumsy, for, even though the grammar never suffered, there was something boring and ugly about it. This is, as I said, very unfortunate, because Natalie Barney was an incredibly fascinating woman, and yet somehow this biography of her was rather dull. I also felt Wickes overemphasized her relationship with men (which were platonic on her part, but several times the men fell in love with her), which is an obnoxious example of bias on his part, being a male. In terms of being “badly edited”, when I was about halfway through the book, I realized that I was reading a sentence that looked extremely familiar, so I flipped back through the pages till I found the earlier example, and I realized that Wickes had reused, verbatim, an entire paragraph! I have no clue how that happens, but that is the most lazy thing I have ever seen in a book before. I’ll quote it below, anyhow. But back to the book—I found that the part I found most boring was the epilogue, with those boring interviews which only went over things I’d already learned from the earlier biography. In those few interviews which were tape-recorded (which were in a separate part), looking at Wickes’ lines, I couldn’t help but find him such a boring and dull man! I felt bad for the women (and men) he was interviewing, because they would sometimes say clever things, and yet, to all appearances (he could have cut out extraneous words when typing up the interviews), he responded with dull acknowledgements of what they were saying and asked boring questions without responding to their witticisms! So, here’s my advice to you, if you’re reading this interview: Don’t read this book. It’s really not worth it. I came out of it feeling as if I somehow hadn’t learned much about Natalie Barney at all, which, alone, would be horrid, without even taking into question the poor quality of the entire thing. There are several other biographies of Natalie Barney, and I would recommend you try your luck with one of those instead of suffering through this.

Quotations:

“These friendships led in turn to others, and gradually she became acquainted with a considerable number of distinguished men.
“It is clear that Natalie was esteemed by such men for her intelligence rather than her wealth and good looks. To say that they were attracted by her wit and charm makes her sound superficial and does justice neither to her nor to them. For her wit was the articulation of an original mind that quickly seized the complexity of an idea, and her charm was an intuitive response to people who interested her. Men of ideas—scholars, philosophers, statesmen, critics—found her remarkably easy to talk to and capable of establishing close rapport in short order. Men of ideas are human, too, and therefore all the more susceptible to an attractive woman who can put them at their ease, listen intelligently to what they have to say, and respond in kind.” (108)

“Her friendship with Berenson can be seen as a sequel to her friendship with Remy de Gourmont, revealing once again her appeal to men of complex and subtle minds. Natalie and Berenson met during the war, at the home of Salomon Reinach, the classical scholar who was a good friend to both and a habitue of the salon, as were other men of learning. To run a successful salon, she had to be more than a gracious hostess, and it is clear that she was esteemed by such men for her intelligence rather than her wealth and good looks. To say that they were attracted by her wit and charm makes her sound superficial and does justice neither to her nor to them. For her wit was the articulation of an original mind that quickly seized the complexity of an idea, and her charm was an intuitive response to people who interested her. Men of ideas—scholars, philosophers, statesmen, critics—found her remarkably easy to talk to and capable of establishing close rapport in short order. Men of ideas are human, too, and therefore all the more susceptible to an attractive woman who can put them at their ease, listen intelligently to what they have to say, and respond in kind.” (153-4)

Bro, how can you be so lazy??!!! Did your editor seriously not catch this, or do you consider this acceptable???! Reusing an entire paragraph, verbatim?? This is ridiculous. LOL, maybe he’s just really proud of this paragraph—he’s like, ‘Oh man, I sound so smart and distinguished and make such a fabulous point in this, so I gotta reuse it. I’m sure no one will notice.’

[Harrison Williams · Rating 4 out of 5]

Written in 1976, this book follows the life of Natalie Barney, American heiress living in Paris beginning in the early twentieth century for about 50 years until her death. The author presents the work in chronological order, following her loves -- primarily female -- as well as her wide circle of friends and acquaintances and the salon she held almost weekly in Paris. Her paths crossed such artists and literati as Gertrude Stein, Romaine Brooks, Dolly Wilde, Virgil Thomson, Truman Capote, Djuna Barnes, Colette, and even Mata Hari. A fascinating read, although I would have liked a bit more detail on her "fascist" sympathies at the beginning of WW II, mentioned briefly once but with no later elaboration. This would have been particularly meaningful given that Barney was one-quarter Jewish but remained in France during the Nazi occupation. Notably, I also appreciated the last 40 pages of the book, devoted to interviews conducted after Barney's death.

[Laura · Rating 3 out of 5]

Read this for a paper and forgot to update it! A fun, but very pulpy look at the lives of Natalie Barney and Renee Viven, who I’m kind of obsessed with now

[nova · Rating 5 out of 5]

this was beautiful a good friend gave it to me so i loved it even more