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“A rare television interview with author Natalie Clifford Barney. Filmed in 1966 at her home in the Latin Quarter of Paris, she talks about her life and the great writers and personalities she met and entertained in her salon.”
– Sourced from the Library of Congress Research Guide on French Women & Feminists in History
‘It was . . . initially through Barney that Vivien became acquainted with Sappho’s work in an English translation by H.T. Wharton. Vivien was deeply impressed and conceived of the desire to learn Greek so that she could read Sappho in the original. Barney was already studying Greek and French prosody with Charles-Brun, and he soon became Vivien’s tutor as well. By 1902, after two years of study, Vivien knew Greek as well as her master.’
— Karla Jay, The Amazon and the Page
‘The Académie des Femmes is one of Natalie’s major achievements. It was one of the first-ever attempts to organize women writers into a cooperative and support environment, and for this alone it stands as a significant contribution to feminist and literary history. After 1927, the academy faded away, but by then it had accomplished its purpose: to unite, honor, and draw attention to women writers.’
— Suzanne Rodriguez, Wild Heart: A Life (2002)
‘Twenty years had passed since Alice [Pike Barney] learned that her daughter was a lesbian. She had accepted Natalie’s sexuality and even befriended her lovers but she had never been overjoyed about any of it. Now, she came right out and told Natalie so. “I disapprove of you,” she wrote in a note, underlining the words. “My coming to live with you would make it appear otherwise . . . I will no longer conceal my real feelings or pretend to things I believe to be wrong.”’
— Suzanne Rodriguez, Wild Heart: A Life (2002)
‘With spooky synchronicity, Natalie picked the very morning of Pauline’s death to finally pay her respects. When she rang the bell, she had no idea that Pauline was dead, nor that people who disliked her [Natalie] intensely were weeping over her corpse. Antoinette [Tarn], in particular, blamed Natalie for her sister’s deterioration—and, thus, her death. Natalie was not wanted in that residence or beside that deathbed, and it is a logical probability that Antoinette or Hélène refused her entry, ordering the butler to send her away.’
— Suzanne Rodriguez, Wild Heart: A Life (2002)
‘Not only did [Natalie Clifford] Barney’s salon operate as a support group for lesbian women; Barney herself spent a lifetime trying to revise the public and private images held by the larger community and lesbian women themselves. She provided a role model in her own behavior . . . she made a pioneer effort to rewrite lesbian history and experience, to deny that guilt, self-recrimination, drug abuse, suicide, unhappiness, and psychological torment were part and parcel of the lesbian’s commitment to an alternative life.’
— Shari Benstock, Women of the Left Bank, Paris 1900–1940 (1988)
‘Carmen Rossi was a simple, earthy soul who loved sex and made no bones about it, and she helped transform Natalie from a groping schoolgirl into an exquisite lover. In later years Natalie’s lovers would write of her “famous hands,” her tongue, her bravado, her tenderness—and all of it started with Carmen. Rossi also kicked off Barney’s lifelong desire to write of love through poetry. Left gasping by their lovemaking, Natalie realized that only art could perpetuate the beauty they experienced together, and “it was thus necessary for me to become a poet of love.”’
— Suzanne Rodriguez, Wild Heart: A Life
‘On one memorable occasion, Natalie told her parents that she was meeting a friend they knew, Martha. When Liane [de Pougy] climbed into the carriage at a pre-arranged location, the family’s coachman assumed her to be the expected Martha. He brought them, as asked, to a part of the waterfront not frequented by the trendy crowd, and promised to pick them up later. Once alone, they rented a rowboat. Beneath Natalie’s cloak was a sailor costume, and that night she played the role of an old salt. She rowed the boat and sang popular American songs while Liane stretched out on a bed of flowers with her head thrown back. Tucked out of sight in a calm bay, Natalie let down the anchor and they stretched out together. The night sky was rich with stars; Natalie’s soul was filled with joy. Years later she remembered feeling that it wasn’t possible to survive such ecstasy.’
— Suzanne Rodriguez, Wild Heart: A Life (2002)
