April 23 is the birthday of the Modernist author, sculptor and music patron Élisabeth de Gramont. More than 500 passionate letters exist between Élisabeth and her lifelong lover and “eternal mate,” Natalie Barney. Nobody’s read them in English. Till now.
Join me 119 years ago in the Paris ballroom of the Duke and Duchess de Gramont, where Consuelo Vanderbilt is making her “social début.”
Translating sex? What’s not to get excited about?
Where’s the Homer of lesbian love, the Tolstoy of lesbian love? Where’s the Maurice of lesbian love? Where’s the Joyce or the Proust of lesbian love?
I’ve begun a new literary adventure, and I look forward to sharing it with you in the year to come. I’ll be translating the raucous biography of an incredible woman, Élisabeth de Gramont, from French into English.
