#p. 112

[everyillumi]

[returntomytilene]

‘Natalie and Pauline were connected by their feminist vision of a world in which women were not only as free as men, but superior to them as well. From the beginning, Barney’s writing had a potent and positive feminist component. She was not one to bewail the lot of women. Instead, she celebrated everything female, extolling women’s power, intelligence, and grit. . . . She openly rejoiced in the beauty of lesbian love. Pauline took a different approach, reconstituting myths and legends to reflect a feminist bias. With the exception of her first book of poetry, she, like Natalie, forthrightly put her name to her sapphic poetry and prose. Natalie and Pauline were virtually alone among their peers in openly rejoicing in the love of women.’

— Suzanne Rodriguez, Wild Heart: A Life (2002)

[everyillumi]

[everyillumi]

[everyillumi]

[everyillumi]

[returntomytilene]

‘At some point Pauline collected her love poems into an elegant handmade book, which she presented to Natalie. The book still exists, its white leather cover now spotted with age. On the front a lyre, exquisitely drawn in purple ink, is surrounded by white lilies. The words Études et Préludes wind back and forth between the instrument’s strings. On the first of the heavy, gold-leafed pages are three words, Pour Elle Seule . . . Ensuing pages contain verse written in Pauline’s hand. Ten of the poems, with variations, would be included in her first published book of poetry, also entitled Études et préludes.’

— Suzanne Rodriguez, Wild Heart: A Life (2002)