Djuna Barnes

Djuna Barnes (June 12, 1892 - June 18, 1982) played an important part in the development of 20th century English language modernist writing by women and was one of the key figures in 1920s and 30s bohemian Paris.

Paris

Barnes arrived in Paris with letters of introduction to Ezra Pound and James Joyce and soon entered the Parisian world of expatriate bohemians who were at the forefront of the modernist movement. Her circle in Paris included Pound, Joyce, Gertrude Stein, Robert McAlmon, Nathalie Barney, Peggy Guggenheim, and Kay Boyle. She also maintained a friendship with the Italian poet Eugenio Montale. Pound disliked Barnes and her writing. However, she developed a close literary and personal friendship with Joyce, who discussed his work with Barnes more freely than he did with most writers and who allowed her to call him Jim, a name otherwise only used by his wife, Nora Barnacle. Barnes considered Joyce a great writer and source of inspiration, but unlike many other Paris expats, she was not overawed by him. She was also promoted by Ford Madox Ford, who published her work in his Transatlantic Review magazine.

Related Topics:
Ezra Pound - James Joyce - Modernist - Gertrude Stein - Robert McAlmon - Nathalie Barney - Peggy Guggenheim - Kay Boyle - Eugenio Montale - Nora Barnacle - Ford Madox Ford

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In Paris, Barnes set up home with her lover Thelma Wood and soon won a reputation as both being openly lesbian and a heavy drinker and drug addict which, in later years, detracted from her reception as a writer. Barnes published a second book, a mixture of prose and poetry called A Book in 1926. In 1928 she brought out a semi-autobiographical novel in a mock-Elizabethan style, Ryder that became a best seller in the United States. She also anonymously published a satirical roman à clef of Paris lesbian life called Lady's Almanack that same year. An enlarged edition of A Book called A Book - A Night Among the Horses appeared in 1929.

Related Topics:
Drug addict - 1926 - 1928 - Elizabethan - United States - Roman à clef - 1929

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