Wild Girls by Diana Souhami

Wild Girls

Paris, Sappho, and Art: The Lives and Loves of Natalie Barney and Romaine Brooks

Diana Souhami

Natalie and Romaine met in London during World War I and their partnership lasted until Natalie died 52 years later. They were both American expatriates; unconventional, energetic, flamboyant and rich. Natalie was known as ‘the wild girl of Cincinnatti’. She had numerous affairs with other women: Renée Vivien who nailed shut the windows of her apartment, wrote about the loveliness of death, drank eau de cologne and died of anorexia aged 30; and Dolly Wilde niece of Oscar, who ran up terrible phone bills and died of a drugs overdose. She wrote books of aphorism, memoirs and poems and her Friday afternoon salons in the cobbled garden of her Parisian house were for ‘introductions and culture’. They were frequented by Gertrude Stein, Colette, Radclyffe Hall and Edith Sitwell. Romaine achieved fame in her own lifetime and after as an artist. She painted her lovers including Gabriele d’Annunzio with whom she had a terrible and tortured relationship, and the ballerina Ida Rubinstein. However her relationship with Natalie was constant and in their eventful years together they threw up a liberating spirit of culture, style and candour. Diana Souhami has written a fascinating portrait of these two enigmatic figures, as well as a moving portrait of a forgotten time.

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Details

ISBN 9780297643869
Genre Award Winner; Autobiography/Biography
Copyright Date 2004
Publication Date 26-Jan-04
Publisher George Weidenfeld & Nicholson
Format Hardcover
No. of Pages 224
Language English
Rating Great
Subject Americans; Authors, American; Lesbians; Women Artists; Women Authors, American
BookID 14621

Author: LFWBooks