Renée Vivien was one of the first twentieth-century lesbian British poets. [p.12] She wrote in French, in the style of the Symbolistes and the Parnassiens. A high-profile lesbian in the Paris of the Belle Époque, she is notable for her work, which has received more attention following a recent revival of interest in Sapphic verse. Many of her poems are autobiographical, pertaining mostly to Baudelarian themes of extreme romanticism and frequent despair. Apart from poetry, she wrote several works of prose, including L'Etre Double, and an unfinished biography of Anne Boleyn, which was published posthumously. She has been the object of multiple biographies, most notably by Jean-Paul Goujon, André Germain, and Yves-Gerard Le Dantec.
Natalie Clifford Barney was an American writer who hosted a literary salon at her home in Paris that brought together French and international writers. She influenced other authors through her salon and also with her poetry, plays, and epigrams, often thematically tied to her lesbianism and feminism.
Djuna Barnes was an American artist, illustrator, journalist, and writer who is perhaps best known for her novel Nightwood (1936), a cult classic of lesbian fiction and an important work of modernist literature.
Olive Eleanor Custance, also known as Lady Alfred Douglas, was an English poet and wife of Lord Alfred Douglas. She was part of the aesthetic movement of the 1890s, and a contributor to The Yellow Book.
Romaine Brooks was an American painter who worked mostly in Paris and Capri. She specialized in portraiture and used a subdued tonal palette keyed to the color gray. Brooks ignored contemporary artistic trends such as Cubism and Fauvism, drawing on her own original aesthetic inspired by the works of Charles Conder, Walter Sickert, and James McNeill Whistler. Her subjects ranged from anonymous models to titled aristocrats. She is best known for her images of women in androgynous or masculine dress, including her self-portrait of 1923, which is her most widely reproduced work.
Karla Jay is a distinguished professor emerita at Pace University, where she taught English and directed the women's and gender studies program between 1974 and 2009. A pioneer in the field of lesbian and gay studies, she is widely published.
Liane de Pougy, TOSD, was a Folies Bergère vedette and dancer renowned as one of Paris's most beautiful and notorious courtesans. Later in life, she also became a Dominican tertiary.
Dorothy Ierne Wilde, known as Dolly Wilde, was an English socialite, made famous by her family connections and her reputation as a witty conversationalist. Her charm and humour made her a popular guest at salons in Paris between the wars, standing out even in a social circle known for its flamboyant talkers.
Alice Pike Barney was an American painter. She was active in Washington, D.C., and worked to make Washington into a center of the arts. Her two daughters were the writer and salon hostess Natalie Clifford Barney and the Baháʼí writer Laura Clifford Barney.
Laura Dreyfus-Barney was a leading American Baháʼí teacher and philanthropist.
Ladies Almanack, its complete title being Ladies Almanack: showing their Signs and their Tides; their Moons and their Changes; the Seasons as it is with them; their Eclipses and Equinoxes; as well as a full Record of diurnal and nocturnal Distempers, written & illustrated by a lady of fashion, was written by Djuna Barnes in 1928. This roman à clef catalogues the amorous intrigues of Barnes' lesbian network centered in Natalie Clifford Barney's salon in Paris. Written as a winking pastiche of Restoration wit, the slender volume is illustrated by Barnes's Elizabethan-inspired woodcuts.
Marie Souvestre was an educator who sought to develop independent minds in young women. She founded a school in France and when she left the school with one of her teachers she founded Allenswood Academy in London.
Lucie Delarue-Mardrus was a French journalist, poet, novelist, sculptor, historian and designer. She was a prolific writer, who produced more than 70 books in her lifetime.
Eyre de Lanux was an American artist, writer, and designer. De Lanux is best known for designing lacquered furniture and geometric patterned rugs, in the art deco style, in Paris during the 1920s. She later illustrated a number of children's books. She died in New York at the age of 102.
Antoinette Corisande Élisabeth, Duchess of Clermont-Tonnerre was a French writer of the early 20th century, best known for her long-term lesbian relationship with Natalie Clifford Barney, an American writer. Élisabeth de Gramont had grown up among the highest aristocracy; when she was a child, according to Janet Flanner, "peasants on her farm... begged her not to clean her shoes before entering their houses". She looked back on this lost world of wealth and privilege with little regret, and became known as the "red duchess" for her support of socialism and feminism.
Anna Livia was a lesbian feminist author and linguist, well known for her fiction and non-fiction regarding sexuality. From 1999 until shortly before the time of her death she was a member of staff at University of California, Berkeley.
Armen Ohanian, born Sophia Pirboudaghian was an Armenian dancer, actress, writer, and translator.
Solita Solano, born Sarah Wilkinson, was an American writer, poet and journalist.
The Prix Renée Vivien is an annual French literary prize which is awarded to poets who write in French. Dedicated to the British poet Renée Vivien, the eponymous prize was first initiated in 1935, and continued intermittently by three different patrons, each with their own vision. First patron was Hélène de Zuylen de Nyevelt de Haar, followed by Natalie Clifford Barney in 1949 then more latterly and currently ongoing from 1994 with Claude Evrard. From each patron, the naming of the award after Renée Vivien was an act of remembrance. Nonetheless, women's poetry, feminist literature and the memories of romantic entanglement with the honoured poet have been inspiring on the first two patrons, who were more alike in their approach to awarding poets, while the heritage of Renée Vivien's style in contemporary poetry interested more Claude Evrard.
Esther Strachey was an American academic, historian, and socialite.
