Je me souviens…
INSCRIBED
Barney, Natalie Clifford. Je me souviens… Paris: E. Sansot et Cie, 1910.
Square 8vo.; edges untrimmed; some leaves uncut throughout and in the “Table” at the rear; page 17 tipped-in; endpapers browned; brown wrappers, glued; printed in dark brown. In a specially made cloth slipcase.
First edition of Barney’s fifth book, published by Sansot in the same year as her Actes et entr-actes and Eparpillements; with a small print run of about 200 copies, printed on Hollande paper. A presentation copy, inscribed to her secretary: To Betzy/who knows how to love little – but long!/Natalie.
Although it is labeled a “roman” (novel), this book is actually a prose poem recounting Barney’s relationship with the English poet Renée Vivien; Barney originally presented Vivien with a manuscript copy of the poem in 1904. In five chapters, titled, “Rencontre,” “Absence,” “Trois Songes,” “Le Retour,” and “Nocturnes.”
Barney and Vivien, who wrote her poetry in French, became lovers after Barney seduced her in 1899. They studied Greek and French literature, and translated of all of Sappho’s writing into French together; they also wished to found a colony of women poets on the Isle of Lesbos, but this plan never came to fruition. They traveled to Lesbos together in 1904, after Barney gave Vivien the manuscript copy of Je me souviens… In lieu of forming the colony, Barney established a famous literary salon in 1909, which she hosted regularly for over sixty years on the rue Jacob. Vivien died in 1909, at age 32, the result of a series of debilitating health problems, including anorexia and drug abuse. After her death, Barney established a literary prize in her honor, which was awarded annually to a woman writer.
Barney’s literary salon became the epicenter of lesbian and intellectual life in Paris in the 1920s; Colette performed there; Mata Hari rode into the courtyard on a white horse, dressed as Lady Godiva; Joyce distributed the first copies of Ulysses there; Barney schemed with Ezra Pound. The list is endless; it seems that anyone who published a book and passed through Paris made an appearance there; it was been noted, however, that Ernest Hemingway never attended, and Proust only came a few times.
Barney (1878-1972) was born to Albert Clifford, the heir to a railroad car fortune, and Alice Pike, a philanthropist and painter. Tutored by French and German-speaking governesses, she was instructed in art, dancing, violin and fencing, and toured Europe for several months. She lived most of the year with her family in Cincinnati, and they spent their summers in Bar Harbour and Europe. One summer in Maine, when Barney was five years old, she literally ran into Oscar Wilde, when she was trying to outrun a group of children. Barney and Wilde remained friends until his death; afterwards Barney hosted a memorial at her salon, and had an affair with his niece.
At the age of twelve, Barney realized she was a lesbian, and was determined to live her life without hiding this fact. Indeed, at a young age, she became known as a seductress. In 1899 – when Barney was twenty-one – the famous French courtesan Liane de Pougy wrote an autobiography titled Idylle saphique, in which the young American girl who seduces an older, worldly woman is quite obviously Barney.
Barney published her first book in 1900, Quelques portraits – sonnets de femmes, which featured illustrations by her mother. This was followed by Cinq petits dialogues grecs (antitheses et paralleles, (1902); Poems et poemes; autres alliances (1920); a memoir, Aventures l'esprit (1929); Pensees d’une Amazone (1929) and Nouvelles Pensees de l'Amazone (1939). In addition to her respectable output of published works, Barney also wrote eleven unpublished manuscripts – in French and English – and a play, titled The Color of His Soul.
An uncommon work – RLG lists only two copies and OCLC, 7 – and scarce inscribed.
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