Djuna Barnes

Djuna Barnes

Djuna Barnes was born on June 12th, 1892. Djuna passed away June 18th, 1982 at 90 years old. Djuna Barnes was born in Storm King Mountain, Orange County, New York, USA.

Djuna Barnes was an illustrator, artist, journalist, and writer best known for her novel Nightwood.

Djuna, as the second eldest child, spent a lot of her childhood helping take care of her siblings and half-siblings. She got her early education at home, primarily from her dad and grandma, who taught her art, writing, and music, however they neglected subjects like spelling and math. She claimed she had no formal school whatsoever, and while there’s evidence suggesting that she was enrolled in public school for a time after she was 10, her attendance was pretty inconsistent.

Her family was facing financial ruin and split up. Her mom moved to New York City with Barnes and three of her brothers, then filed for divorce which freed her dad to marry another woman. This move gave her the chance to study art formally for the first time, attending the Pratt Institute for roughly 6 months and at the Art Student’s League of New York, however the need to support her family and herself, which mainly fell on her, quickly drove her to leave the school.

She started a career as a freelance journalist and illustrator for the Brooklyn Daily Eagle in 1913. She got her job at the Daily Eagleby saying she can write and draw, and they’d be a fool not to hire her.

By early 1914, she was a highly sought after interviewer, feature reporter, and illustrator whose work appeared in the leading periodicals and newspapers of the city. She also published her short fiction in the pulp magazine All-Story Cavalier Weekly and in the New York Morning Telegraph’s Sunday supplement.

Her connections with prominent Greenwich Village bohemians and her talent afforded her the chance to publish her illustrations, one-act plays, prose, and poems in both avant-garde literary journals and popular magazines.

Nightwood is an enigmatic and fiery masterpiece, one of the best novels of the Modernist era.

Djuna’s novel unfolds in the decadent shadows of Europe’s great cities (Vienna, Paris, and Berlin), a world where the boundaries of religion, class, and sexuality are both bold yet surprisingly porous.

There are some outsized characters that are some of the most memorable in all of fiction. There is Robin Vote, an American expatriate that marries Guido Vollkbein, a Wandering Jew and son of a self-proclaimed baron. Robin then she has a series of affairs, first with Nora Flood, which is followed by Jenny Petherbridge, driving all of her lovers to distraction by wandering alone during the night. There is also Dr. Matthew O’Connor, a transvestite and ostensible gynecologist, whose digressive speeches are brimming with such fury, surprising allusions, and keen insights.

Djuna’s portrayals of these characters and all their relationships has made this novel a landmark of lesbian and feminist literature.

Djuna Barnes: Awards & Accolades

Barnes' book, Chloe Plus Olivia was nominated for the Stonewall Book Award, Non-fiction, in 1995.

Related Authors

The most common authors followed by users who also follow Djuna Barnes are:

1. Stephen King, author of The Dark Tower Series.
2. J.K. Rowling, author of the Harry Potter Series.
3. Charles Dickens, author of the novel: A Christmas Carol.
4. Jane Austen, author of the novel: Pride and Prejudice.
5. Bill Bryson, author of the Bill Bryson Travel Books.

Djuna Barnes: F.A.Q