Years of Plenty Memoirist Élisabeth de Gramont, born this day in 1875 April 23 is the birthday Élisabeth de Gramont was forced to share with William Shakespeare, and as far as I can tell, she never held it against him. Today is Shakespeare’s 450th birthday, Lily’s 139th. What’s an age gap of 311 years to
Scent the Page Our Sapphist great grannies never scented the page. Their epics were the slim volumes they branded modern with strong firm hands. When I close my eyes to remember those fragrant afternoons stroked by their pens, when you and I were vaguely imagined, barely glints in their eyes on the jasmine path
Suzanne Stroh : Today is the birthday of Natalie Barney. All Hallow’s Eve. You chose tonight in 1926, on Barney’s 50th birthday, as the setting for your historical farce, Un soir chez l’Amazone. It’s so funny. One of my favorite comic novels of all time. I’m looking forward to translating it with Jean-Loup Combemale, who grew up just down the street from Natalie at 12, rue Jacob. Describe the setting for readers.
Francesco Rapazzini: That’s right, it was a special night at Natalie Barney’s on her fiftieth birthday. The novel tells the story of that party. For one of Natalie’s salons, which were generally semi-public gatherings, this was a bit out of the ordinary. All the guests were either good friends (we meet Gertrude Stein with Alice Toklas, Colette and Djuna Barnes), or else they were Natalie’s current, past or future lovers. It’s a farce, and like all farce it’s also a tragedy. The great human tragedy.
#MeetMeInAnHourSuzanne Stroh: Finally, a party for Natalie that she didn’t have to host herself! Thanks for stopping by, Suzie. As the author of Wild Heart, you’re Natalie’s most complete biographer. If she were to suddenly appear in 2013, what would she make of computers, smart phones and the Internet?
Suzanne Rodriguez: She’d probably find them useful. After all, Natalie wielded the technology of her day without hesitation: telephones, telegrams, typewriters; in Paris she frequently sent meet-me-in-an-hour notes flying through pneumatic tubes, which were kind of an early 20th Century equivalent of text messaging. She had a Kodak Brownie camera the year they arrived on the scene, somewhere around 1900, and loved taking snapshots of her friends.
Photo: Allen Frame
Suzanne Stroh: Thanks for stopping by on Natalie Barney’s birthday. As you can see, I’ve redecorated. What would Romaine make of cyberspace decor? I’m bracing myself. Be honest. Not enough grey?
Cassandra Langer: I can imagine her walking in, looking around, and without hesitation…rearranging the objects on your desk. Adjusting the composition. A little to the right, no back, perhaps forward, and so on. She was a perfectionist. Then she’d stand back and say, “There. Now it sings.”
Pour ou Contre (For or Against)Suzanne Stroh: Jean-Loup, you were born in France, raised in Paris, escaped Nazi occupation through north Africa, grew up in New York, came of age at the U.S. Naval Academy and spent much of your career in a submarine before turning to editing and publishing. How many languages did you pick up along the way?
Jean-Loup Combemale: I think the operative words here are “pick up.” I was five, six, seven years old when we were scurrying around leaving France, so I got dipped into languages and pulled right back out. What it did was, even then, show me how much fun it was to talk and connect to people–that’s a great gift to give a child. I learned Italian and French from my nanny and my mother; basic German from soldiers in the streets of Paris, Arabic from street kids in Oran and Casablanca. When our Portuguese ship stopped in Bermuda on the way to the U.S. I learned my first words of English–“Thank you.” And when we got to the U.S. I learned English and promptly forgot everything except my French, which we spoke at home.
In honor of Natalie Clifford Barney (1876-1972) Author | Poet | Patron of the arts Born on this day 137 years ago Many happy returns!
Aristotle gave Hollywood the three act structure. You know: a story with a beginning, a middle and an end. Boy meets girl, boy loses girl, boy gets girl back (and puts on a show!). Wants, acts, gets. Sure, it works. Yawn. How many of you will admit how boring and predictable this has become? Do
from OurChart.com | May-2007 My favorite character on The L Word is Peggy Peabody, whose name has been mispronounced for four seasons. Which says more about how we lesbians feel about elites than anything else I can think of. If you let Peggy make love to you in 1974, her Year of Being a Lesbian; if you lunched
February 5, 2006. Wendy Pepper’s living room is a work in progress. Enticing picture books are stacked six and seven high on the hardwood floors, acting as makeshift coffee tables. Mannequins stand around blithely in various states of undress. Solar power drives a lighting experiment. The afternoon sunlight bends through moving crystals and dances on
