Renée VIVIEN

Very long autograph letter handwritten by Renée Vivien, signed “Pauline,” written in black ink on three bifolia with letterhead from 24 Hyde Park Street and one single leaf. Horizontal folds inherent to mailing.
A beautiful love letter sent from London while Renée was staying with her family: « Quand je pense qu'un télégramme va banalement et brutalement t'apprendre que je reste encore une semaine à Londres, j'ai envie de pleurer. Et pourtant, il ne faut pas que je pleure, cela m'affaiblirait trop, et j'ai besoin de toutes mes forces et de mon courage. » This painful separation is, in the young woman’s eyes, a necessary evil, the promise of a radiant future: « Si je te fais ce chagrin, mon amie, c'est pour que nous soyons plus heureuses après. [...] Ne m'en veux pas de te faire attendre, je souffre plus que toi ; et si je t'impose, en me l'imposant moi-même, cette souffrance du désappointement, c'est afin de mériter mieux l'amour que tu m'accordes et le bonheur que tu me donnes, par la douleur et par le sacrifice. Je serai ainsi plus digne de toi, et tu m'aimeras mieux pour les larmes que j'ai offertes à notre amour. » Only a few months had passed since Renée and Natalie had begun seeing each other, and one can already sense here the importance of this bond for the Muse of Violets and her insatiable need to be loved: « Tu me pardonnes, dis ? Tu me souris toujours ? Je t'en prie, envoie-moi ton pardon, afin que je le sente comme une rosée sur mon front. Dis-moi de loin que tu m'aimes toujours, et je t'entendrai à travers tout l'espace qui nous sépare. [...] Je t'aime à en mourir, enfant chérie qui es le beau sourire blond de ma vie. Tout ce que je te dis et [sic] sincère. Crois-moi. Aime-moi. » Idealizing this relationship, she launches into a magnificent litany: « Te faire souffrir, toi, qui m'as donné la joie rayonnante de mon existence ! Toi, qui m'as fait aimer la vie ! - Toi, qui m'as mis tant de beaux rêves dans l'âme, tant de bonheur et tant de chaleur au cœur ! - Toi, qui es ma consolation, mon espérance, mon extase, la merveille et le miracle de ma vie ! - Toi, qui m'as donné l'amour, qui me l'as révélé, qui me l'as fait sentir et comprendre ! - Toi, que j'aime ! »
A superb letter-river imbued with the consuming passion of the Muse of Violets for her Amazon.
At the end of 1899, through Violette Shillito, Renée Vivien—then Pauline Tarn—met Natalie Clifford Barney, “cette Américaine plus souple qu'une écharpe, dont l'étincelant visage brille de cheveux d'or, de prunelles bleu de mer, de dents implacables” (Colette, Claudine à Paris). Natalie, fresh from a summer romance with the scandalous Liane de Pougy, who had introduced her to sapphism, paid little heed to this new acquaintance. Renée, on the other hand, was utterly captivated by the young American and would recount this coup de foudre in her autobiographical novel Une Femme m'apparut: “J'évoquai l'heure déjà lointaine où je la vis pour la première fois, et le frisson qui me parcourut lorsque mes yeux rencontrèrent ses yeux d'acier mortel, ses yeux aigus et bleus comme une lame. J'eus l'obscur prescience que cette femme m'intimait l'ordre du destin, que son visage était le visage redouté de mon avenir. Je sentis près d'elle les vertiges lumineux qui montent de l'abîme, et l'appel de l'eau très profonde. Le charme du péril émanait d'elle et m'attirait inexorablement. Je n'essayai point de la fuir, car j'aurais échappé plus aisément à la mort.” “Winter 1899–1900. The beginnings of the idyll. One evening, Vivien is invited by her new friend to the studio of Mme Barney [Natalie’s mother], 153 avenue Victor-Hugo, at the corner of rue de Longchamp. Natalie dares to read aloud her own verses. When Vivien tells her she admires them, she replies that it is better to love the poet. A response truly worthy of the Amazon.” (J.-P. Goujon, Tes blessures sont plus douces que leurs caresses) What followed were two years of uneven happiness, punctuated by Natalie’s recurring infidelities and Renée’s pathological jealousy, her letters oscillating between fervent declarations and painful mea culpa. “Renée Vivien, c'est la fille de Sappho et de Baudelaire, c'est la fleur du mal 1900 avec des fièvres, des envols brisés, des voluptés tristes.” (Jean Chalon, Portrait d'une séductrice)
In 1901 a major rupture occurred that would last nearly two years; Renée, despite Natalie’s entreaties and the intermediaries she sent to win her back, held firm. “Les deux amies se revirent, et se fut, en août 1905, le pèlerinage à Lesbos, qui constitua une déception pour Natalie Barney et demeura sans lendemain. [...] Le ressort était définitivement brisé. Les deux anciennes amies cessèrent de se voir dès 1907, et Vivien mourut sans qu'elles se soient revues.” (J.-P. Goujon, Ibid.)

First edition, one of 10 numbered copies on Japan paper, deluxe copy.
A poem by Renée Vivien at the beginning of the work.
Fine and very rare copy.
In memoriam...

Autograph letter signed by Renée Vivien addressed to her publisher Edward Sansot, written in black ink on a double sheet of headed paper bearing the poet's monogram and her address at 23 avenue du Bois de Boulogne. Transverse folds inherent to mailing, two tiny marginal tears without loss at the fold.
Fascinating letter written by the Muse of the violets in the last months of her life: "J'ai reçu avec une très grande joie les volumes des Flambeaux éteints. Remerciez bien de ma part votre soeur d'avoir fait les corrections, et, je vous en prie, amenez-la moi lorsque vous reviendrez Avenue du Bois. Pour les six exemplaires de Sillages décollés donnez-les - je n'ai pas beaucoup d'amis et me soucie peu de distribuer des volumes au hasard. Maintenant, s'il est trop tard lorsque ma lettre vous parviendra et que les exemplaires me parvinssent quand même, ne soyez pas désolé, - cela m'est indifférent, je vous les ferai envoyer. Mes meilleurs sentiments d'amitié littéraire. Renée Vivien. Je vous envoie en même temps, sept volumes à distribuer au hasard parmi vos amis littéraires." ["I received the volumes of Flambeaux éteints with very great joy. Please thank your sister on my behalf for having made the corrections, and, I beg you, bring her to me when you return to Avenue du Bois. For the six unbound copies of Sillages give them away - I do not have many friends and care little about distributing volumes at random. Now, if it is too late when my letter reaches you and the copies reach me nonetheless, do not be sorry, - it is indifferent to me, I will have them sent to you. My best feelings of literary friendship. Renée Vivien. I am sending you at the same time seven volumes to distribute at random among your literary friends."]
The publication of Flambeaux éteints marks the first collaboration between the poet and her new publisher Edward Sansot. In these last painful years of life, Sansot and his friend Charles-Brun are her only two links with the literary world whose critics - once highly laudatory - have finally turned their backs on her. It must be said that Renée Vivien has decided to withdraw all her books from commerce and is gradually sinking into solitude and depression.
Handsome letter bearing witness to the last literary years of Sappho 1900.

Handwritten signed letter addressed to the poet Jean-Marc Bernard: “I read the very beautiful “eclogue” La Mort de Narcisse whose haughty poetry and dramatic breath I admired very much.“ Handwritten signed letter from Renée Vivien addressed to Jean-Marc Bernard, written in violet ink on a double leaf of paper decorated at the head with a border of violets. Transverse folds from having been sent.
“Monsieur, J'ai lu le très bel "églogue" La Mort de Narcisse dont j'ai fort admiré la hautaine poésie et le large souffle dramatique. Mes très sincères félicitations. Renée Vivien.” “Monsieur, I read the very beautiful “eclogue” La Mort de Narcisse whose haughty poetry and dramatic breath I admired very much. My very sincere congratulations. Renée Vivien.”
Jean-Marc Bernard was one of the founders of the poetic, satirical and monarchist magazine Les Guêpes which welcomed contributions from Paul-Jean Toulet and Francis Carco, among others. Together with the latter two, he was part of the École fantaisiste, a collective of young poets eager to break with the Parnassians and symbolists and whose ambitions were soon to be swept away by the arrival of the Great War. Jean-Marc Bernard lost his life on the front line, destroyed by a shell at the age of thirty-three.

Autograph letter signed by Renée Vivien addressed to Marcelle Tinayre, written in black ink on a double sheet of headed paper decorated with a border of violets. Transverse creases inherent to mailing.
Also a writer, Marcelle Tinayre was close to Renée Vivien, who entrusted her first verses to her to read. Upon Vivien's death, Tinayre paid tribute to her through several texts, notably a very beautiful tribute article published in the review Schéhérazade in 1910 entitled "Trois images de Renée Vivien".
"Chère grande amie, Votre si bonne carte de souvenir m'a réjouie et touchée. De tout coeur un remerciement chaleureux. Malgré les inévitables petits malaises que nous inflige ce temps abominable, je vais mieux, beaucoup mieux. Aussi serais-je très heureuse si vous et Monsieur Tinayre étiez libres, le 12, et pouviez venir dîner chez moi. J'aurai le plaisir de vous présenter ma soeur et mon beau-frère, qui seront à Paris. Vous devinez quelle joie me causera leur présence ! Croyez à toute mon admiration, à toute ma sympthie. Renée Vivien." ["Dear great friend, Your so kind remembrance card delighted and touched me. A warm thank you from the heart. Despite the inevitable small ailments this abominable weather inflicts upon us, I am better, much better. So I would be very happy if you and Monsieur Tinayre were free on the 12th, and could come dine at my home. I will have the pleasure of introducing my sister and brother-in-law, who will be in Paris. You can imagine what joy their presence will bring me! Believe in all my admiration, all my sympathy. Renée Vivien."] The Muse of violets was indeed very close to Toinette, her younger sister, who lived in London with her husband Francis. Renée Vivien was moreover the godmother of their son Paul (a very rare name then in England) in honor of his aunt and, in 1911, Toinette would give birth to a daughter whom she would name Renée in tribute to her deceased sister.
Very beautiful testimony to the friendship that Renée Vivien bore toward Marcelle Tinayre, a writer friend who contributed to perpetuating the memory of Sappho 1900.

Handwritten signed letter addressed to a poet: “You sing the rose loved by Psapphâ, who compared it to the loving virgins of Mitilini” Handwritten signed letter from Renée Vivien addressed to a poet, written in violet ink on a double leaf of paper decorated at the head with a border of violets. Transverse folds from having been sent.
“Monsieur, Je viens à l'instant de défaire le paquet qui contenait votre délicat volume, où j'ai cueilli de rares fleurs de poésie. Vous chantez la rose aimée de Psapphâ, qui la comparait aux vierges amoureuses de Mytilène. Parmi vos poèmes, je préfère : ''Sa Voix", "Sa Grâce" et "Les Mains et l'Apothéose" [...] Renée Vivien ” “Monsieur, I have just this minute undone the package that contained your delicate volume, where I picked rare flowers of poetry. You sing the rose loved by Psapphâ, who compared it to the loving virgins of Mitilini. Among your poems, I prefer: “Sa Voix", "Sa Grâce" and "Les Mains et l'Apothéose" [...] Renée Vivien”
Despite the precision of the titles mentioned, it has not been possible for us to identify the poet to whom Vivien sent this letter of thanks. These titles are reminiscent of the poems of the Muse aux violettes herself.

Autograph letter signed by Renée Vivien addressed to Charles Maurras, written in violet ink on a double leaf of headed paper adorned with a border of violets. Transverse folds inherent to mailing, envelope included.
Beautiful letter of thanks: "Monsieur, En feuillettant votre si intéressant volume : De l'Avenir de l'Intelligence, j'ai relu, avec un plaisir ému, les pages - trop indulgentes vraiment ! - que vous avez consacré à mes ouvrages. Merci infiniment. Et veuillez agréer mes très reconnaissants sentiments de confraternité littéraire. Renée Vivien" ["Sir, While leafing through your most interesting volume: De l'Avenir de l'Intelligence, I reread, with moved pleasure, the pages - too indulgent really! - that you dedicated to my works. Thank you infinitely. And please accept my most grateful sentiments of literary confraternity. Renée Vivien"]
Charles Maurras had indeed devoted a dithyrambic chapter of his work to the Muse of violets whose verses he compared to those of Verlaine: "Le vieux faune sentimental des Fêtes galantes et de Parallèlement reconnaîtrait chez Renée Vivien beaucoup plus qu'une élève, certainement une des Sœurs, une de ces Amies terribles qu'il a chantées. Quant à Baudelaire, il lui dirait : "Ma fille", aux premiers regards échangés. Baudelairisme profond, central, générateur." ["The old sentimental faun of Fêtes galantes and Parallèlement would recognize in Renée Vivien much more than a student, certainly one of the Sisters, one of those terrible Friends he sang of. As for Baudelaire, he would say to her: 'My daughter,' at first glance. Deep, central, generative Baudelairism."]

Autograph letter signed "Paul" and addressed to Natalie Clifford Barney, written in black ink on both sides. Silver monogram of the poetess in the upper left corner of the recto.
"Je ne vais pas à la campagne après tout, mon Tout-Petit. Ils sont partis de si bonne heure que j'ai pu trouver un prétexte pour ne pas les accompagner dans ma fatigue et l'heure trop matinale. Quand veux-tu que je vienne te chercher ? et où irons-nous ? Je serai prête à l'heure où tu voudras. J'aime tes jolies fleurs, elles sont charmantes, - j'ai porté une de tes roses hier au soir. A tout à l'heure, mignon Tout-Petit - Paul" ["I'm not going to the countryside after all, my Little One. They left so early that I was able to find an excuse not to accompany them in my fatigue and the too early hour. When do you want me to come get you? and where shall we go? I'll be ready whenever you want. I love your pretty flowers, they are charming, - I wore one of your roses last evening. See you soon, sweet Little One - Paul"]
It was at the end of 1899 and through Violette Shillito that Renée Vivien - then Pauline Tarn - made the acquaintance of Natalie Clifford Barney "this American more supple than a scarf, whose sparkling face shines with golden hair, sea-blue eyes, implacable teeth" (Colette, Claudine à Paris). Natalie, who had just experienced a summer idyll with the sulfurous Liane de Pougy who had initiated her into sapphism, paid only discreet attention to this new acquaintance. Renée, however, was completely captivated by the young American and would recount this coup de foudre in her autobiographical novel Une Femme m'apparut: "J'évoquai l'heure déjà lointaine où je la vis pour la première fois, et le frisson qui me parcourut lorsque mes yeux rencontrèrent ses yeux d'acier mortel, ses yeux aigus et bleus comme une lame. J'eus l'obscur prescience que cette femme m'intimait l'ordre du destin, que son visage était le visage redouté de mon avenir. Je sentis près d'elle les vertiges lumineux qui montent de l'abîme, et l'appel de l'eau très profonde. Le charme du péril émanait d'elle et m'attirait inexorablement. Je n'essayai point de la fuir, car j'aurais échappé plus aisément à la mort." ["I recalled the already distant hour when I saw her for the first time, and the shiver that ran through me when my eyes met her deadly steel eyes, her sharp and blue eyes like a blade. I had the dark prescience that this woman was commanding me to destiny, that her face was the dreaded face of my future. I felt near her the luminous vertigo that rises from the abyss, and the call of very deep water. The charm of peril emanated from her and attracted me inexorably. I did not try to flee from her, for I would have escaped death more easily."] "Winter 1899-1900. Beginning of the idyll. One evening, Vivien is invited by her new friend to the studio of Mrs. Barney [Natalie's mother], 153 avenue Victor-Hugo, at the corner of rue de Longchamp. Natalie ventures to read verses of her composition. When Vivien tells her she loves these verses, she replies that it is better to love the poet. An answer quite worthy of the Amazon." (J.-P. Goujon, Tes blessures sont plus douces que leurs caresses) There followed two years of unequal happiness, punctuated by Natalie's recurring infidelities and Renée's morbid jealousy, whose letters oscillated between impassioned declarations and painful mea culpas. "Renée Vivien is the daughter of Sappho and Baudelaire, she is the flower of evil 1900 with fevers, broken flights, sad voluptuousness." (Jean Chalon, Portrait d'une séductrice)
In 1901 came an important break that would last almost two years; Renée, despite Natalie's solicitations and the intermediaries she sent to win her back, resisted. "The two friends met again, and it was, in August 1905, the pilgrimage to Lesbos, which constituted a disappointment for Natalie Barney and remained without sequel. [...] The spring was definitively broken. The two former friends stopped seeing each other from 1907, and Vivien died without their having met again." (J.-P. Goujon, Ibid.)
Precious and very rare letter from Sappho 1900 to the Amazon.

Autograph letter by Renée Vivien addressed to Natalie Clifford Barney and written in violet ink on a double sheet bordered with violets. Transverse folds inherent to mailing.
Interesting letter of warning against the opportunist "Lottie": "Tout-Petit très cher, je t'envoie, te sachant insouciante autant qu'adorable (c'est tout dire) ce conseil amical : Méfie-toi de Lottie. Je crois t'avoir dit que la « scène de séduction » chez moi était très savamment préparée et combinée. Lottie a besoin d'argent. Elle en cherche avec âpreté. Elle me demande maintenant une « lettre d'introduction » pour Lugné-Poë... (et moi qui ne le connais pas !) Elle « t'embêtera » ... c'est le mot cru — le seul qui convient — Elle est exaspérée contre moi parce que je n'ai pas succombé et surtout parce que je ne lui donnerai pas d'argent. Si elle m'en avait demandé loyalement, franchement, au nom des jours d'autrefois, j'aurais cédé, mais cette comédie amoureuse me répugne — Je te le répète : Méfie-toi — Ne la vois point si cela t'est possible." ["Very dear Little One, I send you, knowing you to be as carefree as you are adorable (which says everything) this friendly advice: Beware of Lottie. I believe I told you that the 'seduction scene' at my place was very cleverly prepared and planned. Lottie needs money. She seeks it eagerly. She now asks me for a 'letter of introduction' to Lugné-Poë... (and I who don't know him!) She will 'bother you'... that's the crude word — the only one that fits — She is exasperated with me because I did not succumb and especially because I will not give her money. If she had asked me loyally, frankly, in the name of days gone by, I would have given in, but this amorous comedy disgusts me — I repeat: Beware — Do not see her if it is possible for you."]
Charlotte "Lottie" Stern, Countess Venturini was an actress also known by the name of Yorska and a close friend of Sarah Bernhardt. Alice Pike Barney, Natalie's mother, painted a very beautiful profile of her in pastel, entitled "Vamp of 1900" and today preserved at the Smithsonian American Art Museum in Washington. The Jacques Doucet library holds eighteen autograph letters that she addressed to Natalie Clifford Barney.
It was at the end of 1899 and through the intermediary of Violette Shillito that Renée Vivien - then Pauline Tarn - made the acquaintance of Natalie Clifford Barney "cette Américaine plus souple qu'une écharpe, dont l'étincelant visage brille de cheveux d'or, de prunelles bleu de mer, de dents implacables" (Colette, Claudine à Paris). Natalie, who had just lived through a summer idyll with the scandalous Liane de Pougy who had initiated her into sapphism, paid only discreet attention to this new acquaintance. Renée, on the other hand, was completely captivated by the young American and would relate this love at first sight in her autobiographical novel Une Femme m'apparut: "J'évoquai l'heure déjà lointaine où je la vis pour la première fois, et le frisson qui me parcourut lorsque mes yeux rencontrèrent ses yeux d'acier mortel, ses yeux aigus et bleus comme une lame. J'eus l'obscur prescience que cette femme m'intimait l'ordre du destin, que son visage était le visage redouté de mon avenir. Je sentis près d'elle les vertiges lumineux qui montent de l'abîme, et l'appel de l'eau très profonde. Le charme du péril émanait d'elle et m'attirait inexorablement. Je n'essayai point de la fuir, car j'aurais échappé plus aisément à la mort." "Winter 1899-1900. Beginning of the idyll. One evening, Vivien is invited by her new friend to Mme Barney's studio [Natalie's mother], 153 avenue Victor-Hugo, at the corner of rue de Longchamp. Natalie ventures to read verses of her composition. When Vivien tells her she loves these verses, she replies that it is better to love the poet. A response quite worthy of the Amazon." (J.-P. Goujon, Tes blessures sont plus douces que leurs caresses) Two years of unequal happiness would follow, punctuated by Natalie's recurring infidelities and Renée's morbid jealousy, whose letters oscillated between inflamed declarations and painful mea culpa. "Renée Vivien, c'est la fille de Sappho et de Baudelaire, c'est la fleur du mal 1900 avec des fièvres, des envols brisés, des voluptés tristes." (Jean Chalon, Portrait d'une séductrice)
In 1901 an important break occurred that would last almost two years; Renée, despite Natalie's solicitations and the intermediaries she sends to reconquer her, resists. "Les deux amies se revirent, et se fut, en août 1905, le pèlerinage à Lesbos, qui constitua une déception pour Natalie Barney et demeura sans lendemain. [...] Le ressort était définitivement brisé. Les deux anciennes amies cessèrent de se voir dès 1907, et Vivien mourut sans qu'elles se soient revues." (J.-P. Goujon, Ibid.)
Precious and very rare letter from Sappho 1900 to the Amazon.

Autograph letter signed "Pauline" by Renée Vivien addressed to Natalie Clifford Barney and written in violet ink on a double sheet with violet letterhead, the Parisian address on the letterhead crossed out. Transverse folds inherent to mailing.
Fine letter evoking Renée Vivien's execration for Nice: "Ici, un soleil insolent — d'ignobles bâtisses — des gens — Je regrette Mytilène — [...] Mon Dieu, entre Nice et Paris, il n'y a pas de différence bien marquée, quelques oranges de plus ici — des palmiers d'opéra comique - une illusion de chaleur, c'est tout." ["Here, an insolent sun — ignoble buildings — people — I miss Mytilene — [...] My God, between Nice and Paris, there is no marked difference, a few more oranges here — comic opera palm trees — an illusion of warmth, that's all."] The evocation of Mytilene, where the two lovers had traveled the previous summer, continues in this missive: "Encore une lettre de ce vieux filou de Paradelli[s] — Je l'ai envoyé promener — Il est capable de faire main basse sur tout ce qu'il y a dans la maison —" ["Another letter from that old rogue Paradelli[s] — I sent him packing — He's capable of making off with everything in the house —"] It was Passagisti Paradellis who rented a villa on site, with a two-year lease, to Renée and Natalie. "The villa had been tastefully furnished. Collections of rare porcelain, mother-of-pearl inlaid furniture, a dining room with high-backed armchairs." (J.-P. Goujon, Tes blessures sont plus douces que leurs caresses)
In this letter, the Violet Muse also gives the key to one of the characters in Une femme m'apparut whose revised version had just appeared: "Dis à Madame Mardrus (pas de ma part, de la tienne !) que Doriane, c'est elle, telle qu'elle s'est révélée à moi un jour — dans l'ardeur et dans la tristesse." ["Tell Madame Mardrus (not from me, from you!) that Doriane is her, as she revealed herself to me one day — in ardor and in sadness."] The work, whose rewriting had nevertheless tried the poetess, is here devalued by the latter: "En somme — je n'aime pas ce volume ou plutôt il m'est indifférent (ce qui est plus triste encore ­—)" ["In sum — I don't like this volume or rather it is indifferent to me (which is even sadder —)"]

It was at the end of 1899 and through the intermediary of Violette Shillito that Renée Vivien - then Pauline Tarn - made the acquaintance of Natalie Clifford Barney "cette Américaine plus souple qu'une écharpe, dont l'étincelant visage brille de cheveux d'or, de prunelles bleu de mer, de dents implacables" (Colette, Claudine à Paris). Natalie, who had just lived through a summer idyll with the scandalous Liane de Pougy who had initiated her into sapphism, paid only discreet attention to this new acquaintance. Renée, on the other hand, was completely captivated by the young American and would relate this love at first sight in her autobiographical novel Une Femme m'apparut: "J'évoquai l'heure déjà lointaine où je la vis pour la première fois, et le frisson qui me parcourut lorsque mes yeux rencontrèrent ses yeux d'acier mortel, ses yeux aigus et bleus comme une lame. J'eus l'obscur prescience que cette femme m'intimait l'ordre du destin, que son visage était le visage redouté de mon avenir. Je sentis près d'elle les vertiges lumineux qui montent de l'abîme, et l'appel de l'eau très profonde. Le charme du péril émanait d'elle et m'attirait inexorablement. Je n'essayai point de la fuir, car j'aurais échappé plus aisément à la mort." "Winter 1899-1900. Beginning of the idyll. One evening, Vivien is invited by her new friend to Mme Barney's studio [Natalie's mother], 153 avenue Victor-Hugo, at the corner of rue de Longchamp. Natalie ventures to read verses of her composition. When Vivien tells her she loves these verses, she replies that it is better to love the poet. A response quite worthy of the Amazon." (J.-P. Goujon, op. cit.) Two years of unequal happiness would follow, punctuated by Natalie's recurring infidelities and Renée's morbid jealousy, whose letters oscillated between inflamed declarations and painful mea culpa. "Renée Vivien, c'est la fille de Sappho et de Baudelaire, c'est la fleur du mal 1900 avec des fièvres, des envols brisés, des voluptés tristes." (Jean Chalon, Portrait d'une séductrice)
In 1901 an important break occurred that would last almost two years; Renée, despite Natalie's solicitations and the intermediaries she sends to reconquer her, resists. "Les deux amies se revirent, et se fut, en août 1905, le pèlerinage à Lesbos, qui constitua une déception pour Natalie Barney et demeura sans lendemain. [...] Le ressort était définitivement brisé. Les deux anciennes amies cessèrent de se voir dès 1907, et Vivien mourut sans qu'elles se soient revues." (J.-P. Goujon, Ibid.)
Precious and very rare letter from Sappho 1900 to the Amazon.

Autograph letter signed "Paul" from Renée Vivien addressed to Natalie Clifford Barney and written in black ink on a double sheet bordered with violets. Baroness Hélène de Zuylen has added a small manuscript message signed at the end of the letter: "Paule a raison vous êtes un être charmant et féerique !" ["Paule is right, you are a charming and fairy-like being!"] Transverse folds inherent to mailing.
"Cher Tout-Petit, Ton domestique est venu dire que tu nous rejoindrais au théâtre. Mais il n'y a pas de théâtre ! Peux-tu dîner avec nous jeudi ou vendredi ? — Si, dans la soirée de jeudi, tu n'es libre qu'après le dîner, viens nous rejoindre à n'importe quelle heure. Donne-moi un petit coup de téléphone pour me dire ce que tu feras — et si je dois te faire chercher et à quelle heure ? — Dis à tes cheveux que je les aime." ["Dear Little One, Your servant came to say that you would join us at the theater. But there is no theater! Can you dine with us Thursday or Friday? — If, on Thursday evening, you are only free after dinner, come join us at any hour. Give me a little telephone call to tell me what you will do — and if I should have you collected and at what time? — Tell your hair that I love it."]

It was at the end of 1899 and through Violette Shillito that Renée Vivien - then Pauline Tarn - made the acquaintance of Natalie Clifford Barney "cette Américaine plus souple qu'une écharpe, dont l'étincelant visage brille de cheveux d'or, de prunelles bleu de mer, de dents implacables" ["this American more supple than a scarf, whose sparkling face shines with golden hair, sea-blue eyes, implacable teeth"] (Colette, Claudine à Paris). Natalie, who had just experienced a summer idyll with the scandalous Liane de Pougy who initiated her into sapphism, paid only discreet attention to this new acquaintance. Renée on the other hand was totally captivated by the young American and would relate this coup de foudre in her autobiographical novel Une Femme m'apparut: « J'évoquai l'heure déjà lointaine où je la vis pour la première fois, et le frisson qui me parcourut lorsque mes yeux rencontrèrent ses yeux d'acier mortel, ses yeux aigus et bleus comme une lame. J'eus l'obscur prescience que cette femme m'intimait l'ordre du destin, que son visage était le visage redouté de mon avenir. Je sentis près d'elle les vertiges lumineux qui montent de l'abîme, et l'appel de l'eau très profonde. Le charme du péril émanait d'elle et m'attirait inexorablement. Je n'essayai point de la fuir, car j'aurais échappé plus aisément à la mort. » ["I evoked that already distant hour when I saw her for the first time, and the shiver that ran through me when my eyes met her deadly steel eyes, her sharp blue eyes like a blade. I had the obscure prescience that this woman was giving me destiny's order, that her face was the dreaded face of my future. I felt near her the luminous vertigo that rises from the abyss, and the call of very deep water. The charm of peril emanated from her and attracted me inexorably. I did not try to flee her, for I would have escaped death more easily."] « Hiver 1899-1900. Débuts de l'idylle. Un soir, Vivien est invitée par sa nouvelle amie dans l'atelier de Mme Barney [mère de Natalie], 153 avenue Victor-Hugo, à l'angle de la rue de Longchamp. Natalie s'enhardit à lire des vers de sa composition. Comme Vivien lui dit aimer ces vers, elle lui répond qu'il vaut mieux aimer le poète. Réponse bien digne de l'Amazone. » ["Winter 1899-1900. Beginning of the idyll. One evening, Vivien is invited by her new friend to the studio of Mme Barney [Natalie's mother], 153 avenue Victor-Hugo, at the corner of rue de Longchamp. Natalie grows bold enough to read verses of her own composition. When Vivien tells her she loves these verses, she replies that it is better to love the poet. A response quite worthy of the Amazon."] (J.-P. Goujon, Tes blessures sont plus douces que leurs caresses) There followed two years of unequal happiness, punctuated by Natalie's recurring infidelities and Renée's pathological jealousy whose letters oscillated between inflamed declarations and painful mea culpa. « Renée Vivien, c'est la fille de Sappho et de Baudelaire, c'est la fleur du mal 1900 avec des fièvres, des envols brisés, des voluptés tristes. » ["Renée Vivien is the daughter of Sappho and Baudelaire, she is the flower of evil 1900 with fevers, broken flights, sad voluptuousnesses."] (Jean Chalon, Portrait d'une séductrice)
In 1901 came an important rupture that would last almost two years; Renée, despite Natalie's entreaties and the intermediaries she sent to win her back, resisted. « Les deux amies se revirent, et se fut, en août 1905, le pèlerinage à Lesbos, qui constitua une déception pour Natalie Barney et demeura sans lendemain. [...] Le ressort était définitivement brisé. Les deux anciennes amies cessèrent de se voir dès 1907, et Vivien mourut sans qu'elles se soient revues. » ["The two friends saw each other again, and there was, in August 1905, the pilgrimage to Lesbos, which constituted a disappointment for Natalie Barney and remained without a tomorrow. [...] The spring was definitively broken. The two former friends ceased seeing each other from 1907, and Vivien died without their having met again."] (J.-P. Goujon, Ibid.)
Precious and very rare letter from Sappho 1900 to the Amazon.

Autograph letter signed "Paule" from Renée Vivien addressed to Natalie Clifford Barney and written in purple ink on a double sheet with violet letterhead and address of 23 avenue du Bois de Boulogne. Transverse folds inherent to posting.
Charming letter allowing hope for an appeasement in Renée Vivien's amorous ubiquity who seems to have finally chosen Hélène de Zuylen: "Je t'envoie des vers... Les aimes-tu ? — Ils ne me plaisent qu'à moitié — c'est déjà beaucoup ! — Tu as oublié que tu voulais te tuer pour moi... A part ce léger détail, tu as été parfaite — Mon amie t'aime — je t'adore — tout est parfaitement ordonné — [...] N'est-ce pas que mon amie est parfaitement bonne et charmante ? — Je l'aime tant, d'une façon si poignante, si simple et si bête... ce qui est, après tout, la meilleure façon d'aimer !" ["I am sending you verses... Do you love them? — They only half please me — that's already a lot! — You have forgotten that you wanted to kill yourself for me... Apart from this slight detail, you have been perfect — My friend loves you — I adore you — everything is perfectly ordered — [...] Is it not true that my friend is perfectly good and charming? — I love her so much, in such a poignant, simple and silly way... which is, after all, the best way to love!"] One senses here, however, a still very deep attachment of the Muse of violets to the Amazon: "Je baise tes mains d'autrefois — et tes mains d'aujourd'hui — Et je t'aime plus que je ne sais le dire." ["I kiss your hands of yesteryear — and your hands of today — And I love you more than I know how to say."]

It was at the end of 1899 and through the intermediary of Violette Shillito that Renée Vivien - then Pauline Tarn - made the acquaintance of Natalie Clifford Barney "cette Américaine plus souple qu'une écharpe, dont l'étincelant visage brille de cheveux d'or, de prunelles bleu de mer, de dents implacables" ["this American more supple than a scarf, whose sparkling face shines with golden hair, sea-blue pupils, implacable teeth"] (Colette, Claudine à Paris). Natalie, who had just lived a summer idyll with the scandalous Liane de Pougy who had initiated her into sapphism, paid only discrete attention to this new acquaintance. Renée, however, was totally captivated by the young American and would relate this thunderbolt in her autobiographical novel Une Femme m'apparut: "J'évoquai l'heure déjà lointaine où je la vis pour la première fois, et le frisson qui me parcourut lorsque mes yeux rencontrèrent ses yeux d'acier mortel, ses yeux aigus et bleus comme une lame. J'eus l'obscur prescience que cette femme m'intimait l'ordre du destin, que son visage était le visage redouté de mon avenir. Je sentis près d'elle les vertiges lumineux qui montent de l'abîme, et l'appel de l'eau très profonde. Le charme du péril émanait d'elle et m'attirait inexorablement. Je n'essayai point de la fuir, car j'aurais échappé plus aisément à la mort." ["I evoked the already distant hour when I saw her for the first time, and the shiver that ran through me when my eyes met her eyes of mortal steel, her sharp blue eyes like a blade. I had the obscure presentiment that this woman was giving me destiny's order, that her face was the dreaded face of my future. I felt near her the luminous vertigos that rise from the abyss, and the call of very deep water. The charm of peril emanated from her and attracted me inexorably. I did not try to flee from her, for I would have escaped death more easily."] "Hiver 1899-1900. Débuts de l'idylle. Un soir, Vivien est invitée par sa nouvelle amie dans l'atelier de Mme Barney [mère de Natalie], 153 avenue Victor-Hugo, à l'angle de la rue de Longchamp. Natalie s'enhardit à lire des vers de sa composition. Comme Vivien lui dit aimer ces vers, elle lui répond qu'il vaut mieux aimer le poète. Réponse bien digne de l'Amazone." ["Winter 1899-1900. Beginning of the idyll. One evening, Vivien is invited by her new friend to Mme Barney's [Natalie's mother] studio, 153 avenue Victor-Hugo, at the corner of rue de Longchamp. Natalie ventures to read verses of her composition. As Vivien tells her she loves these verses, she replies that it is better to love the poet. A response quite worthy of the Amazon."] (J.-P. Goujon, Tes blessures sont plus douces que leurs caresses) Two years of unequal happiness would follow, punctuated by Natalie's recurring infidelities and Renée's pathological jealousy, whose letters oscillate between inflamed declarations and painful mea culpa. "Renée Vivien, c'est la fille de Sappho et de Baudelaire, c'est la fleur du mal 1900 avec des fièvres, des envols brisés, des voluptés tristes." ["Renée Vivien is the daughter of Sappho and Baudelaire, she is the flower of evil 1900 with fevers, broken flights, sad voluptuousnesses."] (Jean Chalon, Portrait d'une séductrice)
In 1901 came an important breakup that would last almost two years; Renée, despite Natalie's entreaties and the intermediaries she sends to win her back, resists. "Les deux amies se revirent, et se fut, en août 1905, le pèlerinage à Lesbos, qui constitua une déception pour Natalie Barney et demeura sans lendemain. [...] Le ressort était définitivement brisé. Les deux anciennes amies cessèrent de se voir dès 1907, et Vivien mourut sans qu'elles se soient revues." ["The two friends saw each other again, and it was, in August 1905, the pilgrimage to Lesbos, which constituted a disappointment for Natalie Barney and remained without a tomorrow. [...] The spring was definitively broken. The two former friends ceased to see each other from 1907, and Vivien died without their having seen each other again."] (J.-P. Goujon, Ibid.)
Precious and very rare letter from Sappho 1900 to the Amazon.

Autograph letter signed "Pauline" from Renée Vivien addressed to Natalie Clifford Barney and written in purple ink on two double sheets with violet letterhead and address of 23 avenue du Bois de Boulogne. Transverse folds inherent to posting.
A very beautiful and lengthy breakup letter addressed to the Amazon after her impromptu summer 1904 visit to Bayreuth to attempt to win Renée back: "... Les heures passées à Bayreuth étaient de la douceur : et c'est pourquoi je suis revenue." ["The hours spent in Bayreuth were sweet: and that is why I returned."] The lexical field of death is omnipresent in this missive, as if to better emphasize the definitive character of her decision: "Pourquoi t'acharner à vouloir ranimer vainement les choses mortes, Natalie ? Tu ne l'as point compris : ce que je cherchais auprès de toi c'était le souvenir et rien d'autre. On ne revit point l'autrefois. Tu dois le sentir comme moi-même. [...] Je souriais à mon passé. Il est doux parce qu'il est mort. Et toi, tu veux galvaniser ce cadavre et le rendre odieux." ["Why persist in trying to vainly revive dead things, Natalie? You have not understood: what I sought with you was memory and nothing else. One cannot relive the past. You must feel it as I do myself. [...] I smiled at my past. It is sweet because it is dead. And you, you want to galvanize this corpse and make it odious."] The Muse of violets here reveals her suffering and disappointment, pleading with Natalie twice: "Laisse-moi ne plus revenir." ["Let me not return again."]
A veritable funeral oration for extinguished love, this letter is very illuminating as to each one's way of loving: "Nous nous sommes mal comprises. Je voulais un peu de rêve : tu m'offres la réalité." ["We have misunderstood each other. I wanted a little dream: you offer me reality."] For this is what separates Renée - the dreamy and quasi-platonic poetess - and Natalie - the carnal and fickle lover: "Ne sens-tu donc pas, ne comprends-tu donc pas que je n'ai plus aucun désir d'amour ? Je suis lasse infiniment ; je ne voulais qu'un peu de douceur. Et tu m'offres la vie et les frissons, que sais-je ? tout dont je ne me soucie point. Les joies charnelles ? Mais je les possède, mon amie me les donne, ma chair est satisfaite et au-delà. Je ne cherche point cela : je ne désire point cela. Ces choses m'excèdent, venant de toi. J'espérais que, assouvie de ton côté, tu ne me demanderais que ce que je te demande : un peu de rêve lassé ; un peu de compréhension, un peu de regret. Mais nous nous sommes trompées mutuellement. [...] Cherche un amour de chair chez une autre [...]" ["Do you not feel, do you not understand that I no longer have any desire for love? I am infinitely weary; I wanted only a little sweetness. And you offer me life and thrills, what do I know? everything I care nothing about. Carnal joys? But I possess them, my friend gives them to me, my flesh is satisfied and beyond. I do not seek that: I do not desire that. These things excess me, coming from you. I hoped that, satiated on your side, you would ask of me only what I ask of you: a little weary dream; a little understanding, a little regret. But we have deceived each other mutually. [...] Seek carnal love with another [...]"]

It was at the end of 1899 and through the intermediary of Violette Shillito that Renée Vivien - then Pauline Tarn - made the acquaintance of Natalie Clifford Barney "cette Américaine plus souple qu'une écharpe, dont l'étincelant visage brille de cheveux d'or, de prunelles bleu de mer, de dents implacables" ["this American more supple than a scarf, whose sparkling face shines with golden hair, sea-blue pupils, implacable teeth"] (Colette, Claudine à Paris). Natalie, who had just lived a summer idyll with the scandalous Liane de Pougy who had initiated her into sapphism, paid only discrete attention to this new acquaintance. Renée, however, was totally captivated by the young American and would relate this thunderbolt in her autobiographical novel Une Femme m'apparut: "J'évoquai l'heure déjà lointaine où je la vis pour la première fois, et le frisson qui me parcourut lorsque mes yeux rencontrèrent ses yeux d'acier mortel, ses yeux aigus et bleus comme une lame. J'eus l'obscur prescience que cette femme m'intimait l'ordre du destin, que son visage était le visage redouté de mon avenir. Je sentis près d'elle les vertiges lumineux qui montent de l'abîme, et l'appel de l'eau très profonde. Le charme du péril émanait d'elle et m'attirait inexorablement. Je n'essayai point de la fuir, car j'aurais échappé plus aisément à la mort." ["I evoked the already distant hour when I saw her for the first time, and the shiver that ran through me when my eyes met her eyes of mortal steel, her sharp blue eyes like a blade. I had the obscure presentiment that this woman was giving me destiny's order, that her face was the dreaded face of my future. I felt near her the luminous vertigos that rise from the abyss, and the call of very deep water. The charm of peril emanated from her and attracted me inexorably. I did not try to flee from her, for I would have escaped death more easily."] "Hiver 1899-1900. Débuts de l'idylle. Un soir, Vivien est invitée par sa nouvelle amie dans l'atelier de Mme Barney [mère de Natalie], 153 avenue Victor-Hugo, à l'angle de la rue de Longchamp. Natalie s'enhardit à lire des vers de sa composition. Comme Vivien lui dit aimer ces vers, elle lui répond qu'il vaut mieux aimer le poète. Réponse bien digne de l'Amazone." ["Winter 1899-1900. Beginning of the idyll. One evening, Vivien is invited by her new friend to Mme Barney's [Natalie's mother] studio, 153 avenue Victor-Hugo, at the corner of rue de Longchamp. Natalie ventures to read verses of her composition. As Vivien tells her she loves these verses, she replies that it is better to love the poet. A response quite worthy of the Amazon."] (J.-P. Goujon, Tes blessures sont plus douces que leurs caresses) Two years of unequal happiness would follow, punctuated by Natalie's recurring infidelities and Renée's pathological jealousy, whose letters oscillate between inflamed declarations and painful mea culpa. "Renée Vivien, c'est la fille de Sappho et de Baudelaire, c'est la fleur du mal 1900 avec des fièvres, des envols brisés, des voluptés tristes." ["Renée Vivien is the daughter of Sappho and Baudelaire, she is the flower of evil 1900 with fevers, broken flights, sad voluptuousnesses."] (Jean Chalon, Portrait d'une séductrice)
In 1901 came an important breakup that would last almost two years; Renée, despite Natalie's entreaties and the intermediaries she sends to win her back, resists. "Les deux amies se revirent, et se fut, en août 1905, le pèlerinage à Lesbos, qui constitua une déception pour Natalie Barney et demeura sans lendemain. [...] Le ressort était définitivement brisé. Les deux anciennes amies cessèrent de se voir dès 1907, et Vivien mourut sans qu'elles se soient revues." ["The two friends saw each other again, and it was, in August 1905, the pilgrimage to Lesbos, which constituted a disappointment for Natalie Barney and remained without a tomorrow. [...] The spring was definitively broken. The two former friends ceased to see each other from 1907, and Vivien died without their having seen each other again."] (J.-P. Goujon, Ibid.)
Precious and very rare letter from Sappho 1900 to the Amazon.

Autograph letter signed "Pauline" by Renée Vivien, written in black ink on two double sheets of letterhead paper from 24 Hyde Park Street. Transverse folds inherent to posting.
A very beautiful and poetic letter written from London where the young Renée savors a sweet melancholy: "Today, there was no sun, a light fog, a dark and sad atmosphere. I was pleased by it, — I hate spring when you are no longer here, and the sun and soft air hurt me. I love the sadness of the sky and the moon which goes well with my thoughts." Despite a very busy schedule ("I am very tired this evening, — I return from the Alhambra, where mama took me to see the military ballet and hear the patriotic songs. [...] I went skating in the afternoon, in the morning, I went to see one of my friends here, who is very kind although having too much religion for my taste."), the young woman is bored in this city that she profoundly detests ("How can you be jealous, you whom I adore, of London, which I hate? — I have been unhappy since I entered this city. It is dark, it has a bad influence on my destiny. It brings me misfortune. It will end up killing me if I stay. I am afraid of it, I want to leave, to join you my darling, my spring, you, who are the being of light and beauty, my love, my happiness and my consolation.") and finds comfort in the memory of her beloved of whom she thinks every moment: "You are right to feel my thoughts around you, — I desperately throw my soul across space so that it finds you — Your memory is in all my actions, all my words, — it is you that I see through the things that surround me." Natalie is everywhere, even in her reading: "I will read 'Séraphita' to find you a little in those pages of Balzac. Everything that reminds me of you, everything that has some connection with you, even distant, is dear to me." As Jean Chalon shows in his biography of Natalie Clifford Barney (Portrait d'une séductrice), Séraphita is a founding novel of the Amazon's thought and one of the first books she bought upon her arrival in Europe: "Natalie had vainly sought this philosophical novel by Balzac in the bookstores of Washington. She would find this book in Europe and push refinement to the point of reading the angelic avatars of Séraphitus-Séraphita in that Norway which forms its setting." From this underlined passage in her copy, one notices that she retains more of its feminism than the concept of intersexuality: "Would this not be using your rights as a man? We must always please you, relax you, always be cheerful, and have only the whims that amuse you. What must I do, my friend? Do you want me to sing, to dance, when fatigue takes away the use of my voice and legs? Gentlemen, even if we were dying, we must still smile at you! You call this, I believe, reigning. Poor women! I pity them." As evidenced by a letter addressed to her previous lover Liane de Pougy, she had already introduced her to this Balzacian heroine: "You will come to me, I will go to you and we will marry our lives. That day you will read me Séraphîta. She will awaken our slumbering souls and you will lend to the sleeping words the beauty of your voice. It will be our litany of love."

It was at the end of 1899 and through Violette Shillito that Renée Vivien - then Pauline Tarn - made the acquaintance of Natalie Clifford Barney "this American more supple than a scarf, whose sparkling face shines with golden hair, sea-blue pupils, and implacable teeth" (Colette, Claudine à Paris). Natalie, who had just lived a summer idyll with the sulfurous Liane de Pougy who had initiated her into sapphism, paid only discreet attention to this new acquaintance. Renée on the other hand was totally captivated by the young American and would relate this love at first sight in her autobiographical novel Une Femme m'apparut : "I evoked the already distant hour when I saw her for the first time, and the shiver that ran through me when my eyes met her eyes of mortal steel, her sharp blue eyes like a blade. I had the obscure prescience that this woman was giving me the order of destiny, that her face was the dreaded face of my future. I felt near her the luminous vertigos that rise from the abyss, and the call of very deep water. The charm of peril emanated from her and attracted me inexorably. I did not try to flee from her, for I would have escaped death more easily." "Winter 1899-1900. Beginning of the idyll. One evening, Vivien is invited by her new friend to Mrs. Barney's studio [Natalie's mother], 153 avenue Victor-Hugo, at the corner of rue de Longchamp. Natalie ventures to read verses of her composition. When Vivien tells her she loves these verses, she replies that it is better to love the poet. A response quite worthy of the Amazon." (J.-P. Goujon, Tes blessures sont plus douces que leurs caresses) Two years of unequal happiness would follow, punctuated by Natalie's recurring infidelities and Renée's morbid jealousy whose letters oscillate between passionate declarations and painful mea culpa. "Renée Vivien is the daughter of Sappho and Baudelaire, she is the flower of evil 1900 with fevers, broken flights, sad voluptuousness." (Jean Chalon, Portrait d'une séductrice)
In 1901 came an important rupture that would last almost two years; Renée, despite Natalie's solicitations and the intermediaries she sends to reconquer her, resists. "The two friends saw each other again, and it was, in August 1905, the pilgrimage to Lesbos, which constituted a disappointment for Natalie Barney and remained without sequel. [...] The spring was definitively broken. The two former friends ceased to see each other from 1907, and Vivien died without them having seen each other again." (J.-P. Goujon, Ibid.)

Very long autograph manuscript letter from Renée Vivien signed "Pauline" written in black ink on a double sheet of headed paper from 24 Hyde Park Street. Transverse folds inherent to posting.
Fine love letter sent from London while Renée was with her family: "Quelle lente et lourde journée, mon tout petit ! — j'en ai tout le poids sur le cœur — Dieu, que j'ai mal, que je m'ennuie ! — Ce matin, j'avais un faible rayon d'espoir, je croyais peut-être te rejoindre bientôt, ou même tout de suite, hélas ! hélas ! hélas ! — Il est arrivé ce que je craignais, — j'ai dû rester — On se serait étonné, on aurait trouvé ça louche, si j'étais partie tout de même." ["What a slow and heavy day, my little one! — I have all its weight on my heart — God, how I hurt, how I'm bored! — This morning, I had a faint ray of hope, I thought perhaps to rejoin you soon, or even right away, alas! alas! alas! — What I feared has happened, — I had to stay — People would have been surprised, they would have found it suspicious, if I had left anyway."] This was only a few months since Renée and Natalie began seeing each other and we can read here the importance this relationship held for the Muse of violets who never ceased to flagellate herself: "Ta pauvre lettre, où chaque mot respire la mélancolie et la souffrance, me brise le cœur. Je souffre, en la lisant, tout ce que tu as souffert. Pardonne-moi, Natalie, ma bien-aimée ! Tes reproches sont si doux qu'ils me déchirent l'âme plus que toutes les récriminations amères qu'un autre être moins aimant m'aurait criées... J'ai eu tort, cent fois tort, mille fois tort, de rester — pourquoi donc ai-je obéi à un fantôme de Devoir, à un spectre de Pitié qui, je ne sais pourquoi, m'obsède et vient m'ôter des heures divines que le Destin pitoyable m'accorde... La réalité, c'est l'Amour, il n'y a que lui, rien n'est en dehors de lui, et, on souffre toujours de l'avoir sacrifié à quelque chose, si sainte soit-elle..." ["Your poor letter, where each word breathes melancholy and suffering, breaks my heart. I suffer, in reading it, everything that you have suffered. Forgive me, Natalie, my beloved! Your reproaches are so sweet that they tear my soul more than all the bitter recriminations that another, less loving being would have cried to me... I was wrong, a hundred times wrong, a thousand times wrong, to stay — why then did I obey a phantom of Duty, a specter of Pity which, I don't know why, obsesses me and comes to take from me divine hours that pitiful Destiny grants me... Reality is Love, there is only it, nothing is outside of it, and one always suffers from having sacrificed it to something, however sacred it may be..."]
Very fine letter imbued with the devouring passion of the Muse of violets for her Amazon.
It was at the end of 1899 and through the intermediary of Violette Shillito that Renée Vivien - then Pauline Tarn - made the acquaintance of Natalie Clifford Barney "cette Américaine plus souple qu'une écharpe, dont l'étincelant visage brille de cheveux d'or, de prunelles bleu de mer, de dents implacables" ["this American more supple than a scarf, whose sparkling face shines with golden hair, sea-blue eyes, implacable teeth"] (Colette, Claudine à Paris). Natalie, who had just lived a summer idyll with the sulfurous Liane de Pougy who had initiated her to sapphism, paid only discreet attention to this new acquaintance. Renée however was totally subjugated by the young American and would relate this love at first sight in her autobiographical novel Une Femme m'apparut: "J'évoquai l'heure déjà lointaine où je la vis pour la première fois, et le frisson qui me parcourut lorsque mes yeux rencontrèrent ses yeux d'acier mortel, ses yeux aigus et bleus comme une lame. J'eus l'obscur prescience que cette femme m'intimait l'ordre du destin, que son visage était le visage redouté de mon avenir. Je sentis près d'elle les vertiges lumineux qui montent de l'abîme, et l'appel de l'eau très profonde. Le charme du péril émanait d'elle et m'attirait inexorablement. Je n'essayai point de la fuir, car j'aurais échappé plus aisément à la mort." ["I evoked the already distant hour when I saw her for the first time, and the shiver that ran through me when my eyes met her eyes of mortal steel, her sharp blue eyes like a blade. I had the obscure prescience that this woman was giving me the order of destiny, that her face was the dreaded face of my future. I felt near her the luminous vertigos that rise from the abyss, and the call of very deep water. The charm of peril emanated from her and attracted me inexorably. I did not try to flee her, for I would have escaped death more easily."] "Hiver 1899-1900. Débuts de l'idylle. Un soir, Vivien est invitée par sa nouvelle amie dans l'atelier de Mme Barney [mère de Natalie], 153 avenue Victor-Hugo, à l'angle de la rue de Longchamp. Natalie s'enhardit à lire des vers de sa composition. Comme Vivien lui dit aimer ces vers, elle lui répond qu'il vaut mieux aimer le poète. Réponse bien digne de l'Amazone." ["Winter 1899-1900. Beginnings of the idyll. One evening, Vivien is invited by her new friend to Mme Barney's [Natalie's mother] studio, 153 avenue Victor-Hugo, at the corner of rue de Longchamp. Natalie ventures to read verses of her composition. As Vivien tells her she loves these verses, she replies that it's better to love the poet. A response quite worthy of the Amazon."] (J.-P. Goujon, Tes blessures sont plus douces que leurs caresses) Two years of unequal happiness would follow, punctuated by Natalie's recurring infidelities and Renée's morbid jealousy, whose letters oscillated between inflamed declarations and painful mea culpas. "Renée Vivien, c'est la fille de Sappho et de Baudelaire, c'est la fleur du mal 1900 avec des fièvres, des envols brisés, des voluptés tristes." ["Renée Vivien is the daughter of Sappho and Baudelaire, she is the flower of evil 1900 with fevers, broken flights, sad voluptuousnesses."] (Jean Chalon, Portrait d'une séductrice)
In 1901 came an important rupture that would last almost two years; Renée, despite Natalie's solicitations and the intermediaries she sent to reconquer her, resisted. "Les deux amies se revirent, et se fut, en août 1905, le pèlerinage à Lesbos, qui constitua une déception pour Natalie Barney et demeura sans lendemain. [...] Le ressort était définitivement brisé. Les deux anciennes amies cessèrent de se voir dès 1907, et Vivien mourut sans qu'elles se soient revues." ["The two friends saw each other again, and it was, in August 1905, the pilgrimage to Lesbos, which constituted a disappointment for Natalie Barney and remained without sequel. [...] The spring was definitively broken. The two former friends ceased to see each other from 1907, and Vivien died without them having seen each other again."] (J.-P. Goujon, Ibid.)

Handwritten signed letter addressed to Natalie Clifford Barney: “I told you by the raw voice of the telegraph, Natalie, the time has not come for us to see each other again.” Handwritten letter signed “Pauline” from Renée Vivien addressed to Natalie Clifford Barney and written in black ink on two double leaves edged with violettes. Transverse folds from having been sent.
Interesting letter mentioning Brumes de fjords and Freddy Manners-Sutton.

“Tu te trompes en croyant retrouver dans Brumes de fjords un reflet de femme ou l'influence d'une pensée de poète norvégien. Je les ai faites d'un souvenir très lointain de ce pays mystique et de quelques rêves lourds de nostalgies.” “You are mistaken when you think that you find a reflection of a woman or the influence of a Norwegian poet's thinking in Brumes de fjords. I wrote them as a very distant memory of this mystical country and of some dreams heavy with nostalgia.” Brumes de fjords is the first collection of prose poetry by Renée Vivien to be published in June 1902. Natalie and Renée were then separated but this letter shows that the Muse aux violettes continued to send her texts to the Amazone despite the physical and sentimental distance that separated them. “Car j'ai dans ma vie une tendresse que je crois sincère – quoi qu'il me soit difficile aujourd'hui de croire à la sincérité, même lorsqu'elle me montre ses larmes.” “Since I have a tenderness in my life which I believe to be sincere - though it is difficult for me today to believe in sincerity, even when it shows me its tears.”

This letter was indeed sent to Natalie Clifford Barney while she was in the United States: “Je serais venue si tu avais eu besoin de moi. Toi-même tu m'as télégraphiée que ma présence était inutile. (lorsque ton temps était pris par un flirt) Freddy Manners-Sutton ? qui sait ? et qu'importe ? Il est trop tard maintenant. Je ne viens pas t'amuser ni remplacer une distraction absente. Si tu viens à Paris cet hiver je te verrai une ou deux fois – comme on revoit le visage lointain de son passé – sans colère, sans haine, mais aussi sans amour.” “I would have come if you needed me. You yourself telegraphed me that my presence was useless. (when your time was taken by a flirt) Freddy Manners-Sutton? Who knows? And what does it matter? It's too late now. I don't come to amuse you or replace an absent distraction. If you come to Paris this winter I will see you once or twice - as you see the distant face of your past - without anger, without hatred but also without love.” Here Renée gives free reign to her jealousy, mentioning Freddy Manners-Sutton, Natalie's friend: “En réalité, Vivien ne pouvait supporter Manners-Sutton. Dans Une femme m'apparut, elle l'appellera tout simplement Le Prostitué et dira de lui : Il est banal comme l'adultère. Cette antipathie se transformera en une haine féroce lorsqu'un peu plus tard Vivien apprendra que cet homme se faisait passer pour le fiancé de Natalie Barney. Sacrilège suprême... ! Mais Vivien ne savait pas – ou bien voulait ignorer – que cette rumeur était en fait propagée par Natalie Barney elle-même, afin de donner le change à ses parents. Non, pensait-elle, ce personnage au-dessous de toute insulte veut tout simplement capter la fortune de Natalie !” “In reality, Vivien could not bear Manners-Sutton. In Une femme m'apparut, she will very simply call him Le Prostitué and will say of him: He is common like adultery. This antipathy will turn into a fierce hatred when a little later Vivien learns that this man pretends to be Natalie Barney's fiancé. Supreme sacrilege...! But Vivien did not know - or even wanted to ignore - that this rumour was actually spread by Natalie Barney herself, in order to pull the wool over her parent's eyes. No, she thought, this below any insult character simply wants to capture Natalie's fortune!” (J.-P. Goujon, Tes blessures sont plus douces que leurs caresses)

Precious and very rare letters from Sapho 1900 to the Amazone.

Very long autograph manuscript letter by Renée Vivien signed "Ton fervent Paul" written in black ink on two double sheets and one single sheet. Transverse creases inherent to the mailing, envelope included.
Moving letter recounting Renée Vivien's first encounters with suffering and death. Having returned to her family in London, the Violet Muse watches over her dying cousin : "Mon pauvre cousin va de plus en plus mal. Je crains horriblement que ce ne soit la fin. Il est la plupart du temps en proie à la fièvre et au délire. Ou bien il dort d'un mauvais sommeil de prostration et de faiblesse, à la suite des piqûres de morphine. [...] Cela me fait mal de voir le pauvre squelette qui me sourit si faiblement, ce visage est marqué déjà par la mort, il y a la trace de sa serre qui ne relâche pas." ["My poor cousin is getting worse and worse. I am horribly afraid this may be the end. He is most of the time prey to fever and delirium. Or else he sleeps a bad sleep of prostration and weakness, following morphine injections. [...] It pains me to see the poor skeleton who smiles at me so weakly, this face is already marked by death, there is the trace of its grip that does not let go."] Pain is omnipresent in this letter-torrent: "J'ai vu une chose horrible aujourd'hui à l'hôpital en allant voir mon cousin. On a apporté, sur un brancard, une chose épouvantable, - un corps couvert d'un drap, et une tête d'homme aux joues brûlées, - et de cela sortait des gémissements et des hurlements et des râles. Il me semble que je ne pourrai jamais oublier l'affreuse chose inerte qui m'a frôlée de si près cette après-midi. Il paraît que c'était un ouvrier terriblement blessé par une explosion de gaz qui a eu lieu dans une fabrique, à une heure cette après-midi. Ah ! la sinistre chose qu'on portait là-bas ! On entend parler d'accidents, et de blessures et de mort, et on n'y fait pas attention, jusqu'à ce qu'on voie ce que c'est. L'horreur de tout cela m'obsède ce soir, et s'ajoute à mon abattement et à ma mélancolie." ["I saw a horrible thing today at the hospital while going to see my cousin. They brought, on a stretcher, a dreadful thing, - a body covered with a sheet, and a man's head with burned cheeks, - and from this came moans and howls and death rattles. It seems to me I will never be able to forget the awful inert thing that brushed so close to me this afternoon. It appears it was a worker terribly injured by a gas explosion that occurred in a factory, at one o'clock this afternoon. Ah! the sinister thing they were carrying there! One hears talk of accidents, and injuries and death, and pays no attention to it, until one sees what it is. The horror of all this obsesses me tonight, and adds to my dejection and my melancholy."]
At this time, Renée Vivien had not yet published anything and even devalued her verses in favor of those of the Amazon: "Ce matin, Chère, la joie que m'a causée ta lettre, et l'émotion profonde de ton beau sonnet - ce vers « Is there no touch beyond the touch of hands » et ces deux autres : « Is there no love that burns an unseen fire » « Beyond the finish of expressed desire » sont de toute splendeur poétique. [...] C'est toi qui portes au front la grande lumière, c'est dans ton cœur que chante la musique sublime, parler de mes vers, à moi ? Ils sont pauvres à faire pleurer." ["This morning, Dear, the joy your letter caused me, and the profound emotion of your beautiful sonnet - this verse 'Is there no touch beyond the touch of hands' and these two others: 'Is there no love that burns an unseen fire' 'Beyond the finish of expressed desire' are of all poetic splendor. [...] It is you who bears the great light on your brow, it is in your heart that the sublime music sings, speak of my verses, me? They are poor enough to make one weep."] Written in a period preceding the sentimental storms, this very beautiful poetic letter is a celebration of love between Renée and Natalie: "Je t'aime, ô mon cher grand Poète admirable et superbe, d'avoir écrit ces vers lumineux et de les avoir pensés. Je t'aime d'avoir autant de la Divinité en toi. Je t'adore avec la religion d'un culte. Mon âme est pieusement prosternée, ce soir, - la beauté de ton âme triomphe. [...] J'ai encore un baiser à te donner, le dernier ce soir. Je le poserai sur ton front de poète, - ton front d'harmonie et de bonté. Je te dirai encore que tes vers sont divinement inspirés. Je me mettrai religieusement à tes pieds, - je t'écouterai et je t'adorerai. Enseigne-moi, chante-moi, Poète, Prêtresse, et Divinité tout à la fois. Ton fervent Paul" ["I love you, oh my dear great admirable and superb Poet, for having written these luminous verses and for having thought them. I love you for having so much of the Divine in you. I adore you with the religion of a cult. My soul is piously prostrated, tonight, - the beauty of your soul triumphs. [...] I still have a kiss to give you, the last one tonight. I will place it on your poet's brow, - your brow of harmony and goodness. I will tell you again that your verses are divinely inspired. I will place myself religiously at your feet, - I will listen to you and I will adore you. Teach me, sing to me, Poet, Priestess, and Divinity all at once. Your fervent Paul"]

It was at the end of 1899 and through the intermediary of Violette Shillito that Renée Vivien - then Pauline Tarn - made the acquaintance of Natalie Clifford Barney "cette Américaine plus souple qu'une écharpe, dont l'étincelant visage brille de cheveux d'or, de prunelles bleu de mer, de dents implacables" ["this American more supple than a scarf, whose sparkling face shines with golden hair, sea-blue pupils, implacable teeth"] (Colette, Claudine à Paris). Natalie, who had just experienced a summer idyll with the sulfurous Liane de Pougy who had initiated her into sapphism, paid only discreet attention to this new acquaintance. Renée on the other hand was totally subjugated by the young American and would recount this love at first sight in her autobiographical novel Une Femme m'apparut : "J'évoquai l'heure déjà lointaine où je la vis pour la première fois, et le frisson qui me parcourut lorsque mes yeux rencontrèrent ses yeux d'acier mortel, ses yeux aigus et bleus comme une lame. J'eus l'obscur prescience que cette femme m'intimait l'ordre du destin, que son visage était le visage redouté de mon avenir. Je sentis près d'elle les vertiges lumineux qui montent de l'abîme, et l'appel de l'eau très profonde. Le charme du péril émanait d'elle et m'attirait inexorablement. Je n'essayai point de la fuir, car j'aurais échappé plus aisément à la mort." ["I evoked the already distant hour when I saw her for the first time, and the shiver that ran through me when my eyes met her eyes of mortal steel, her sharp and blue eyes like a blade. I had the obscure prescience that this woman commanded me with the order of destiny, that her face was the dreaded face of my future. I felt near her the luminous vertigo that rises from the abyss, and the call of very deep water. The charm of danger emanated from her and attracted me inexorably. I did not try to flee her, for I would have escaped death more easily."] "Hiver 1899-1900. Débuts de l'idylle. Un soir, Vivien est invitée par sa nouvelle amie dans l'atelier de Mme Barney [mère de Natalie], 153 avenue Victor-Hugo, à l'angle de la rue de Longchamp. Natalie s'enhardit à lire des vers de sa composition. Comme Vivien lui dit aimer ces vers, elle lui répond qu'il vaut mieux aimer le poète. Réponse bien digne de l'Amazone." ["Winter 1899-1900. Beginning of the idyll. One evening, Vivien is invited by her new friend to Mme Barney's studio [Natalie's mother], 153 avenue Victor-Hugo, at the corner of rue de Longchamp. Natalie grows bold enough to read verses of her composition. As Vivien tells her she loves these verses, she replies that it is better to love the poet. A response quite worthy of the Amazon."] (J.-P. Goujon, Tes blessures sont plus douces que leurs caresses) Two years of uneven happiness would follow, punctuated by Natalie's recurring infidelities and Renée's pathological jealousy, whose letters oscillated between passionate declarations and painful mea culpa. "Renée Vivien, c'est la fille de Sappho et de Baudelaire, c'est la fleur du mal 1900 avec des fièvres, des envols brisés, des voluptés tristes." ["Renée Vivien, she is the daughter of Sappho and Baudelaire, she is the flower of evil 1900 with fevers, broken flights, sad voluptuousness."] (Jean Chalon, Portrait d'une séductrice)
In 1901 came an important breakup that would last almost two years; Renée, despite Natalie's solicitations and the intermediaries she sent to win her back, resisted. "Les deux amies se revirent, et se fut, en août 1905, le pèlerinage à Lesbos, qui constitua une déception pour Natalie Barney et demeura sans lendemain. [...] Le ressort était définitivement brisé. Les deux anciennes amies cessèrent de se voir dès 1907, et Vivien mourut sans qu'elles se soient revues." ["The two friends saw each other again, and it was, in August 1905, the pilgrimage to Lesbos, which constituted a disappointment for Natalie Barney and had no tomorrow. [...] The spring was definitively broken. The two former friends ceased to see each other from 1907, and Vivien died without their having met again."] (J.-P. Goujon, Ibid.)

Handwritten signed letter addressed to Natalie Clifford Barney: “I am in the grips of one of my bouts of black and wild melancholy, - I can no longer see anyone.” Handwritten letter from Renée Vivien signed “Paule” and written in pencil on a double leaf with a silver-coloured heart with the poet's monogram at the top of the first sheet. Transverse fold from having been sent.
Beautiful letter of apology after a dispute with the Amazone: “Suis en proie à un de mes accès de mélancolie noire et sauvage, – je ne peux plus voir personne. Je m'en vais demain à Fontainebleau pour y rester jusqu'à ce que je sois guérie, – je dis : guérie avec intention car c'est une espèce de maladie morale dont je souffre en ce moment. C'est pour cela que j'étais si mauvaise hier, – j'aurais dû m'enfermer, comme je le fais toujours en pareil cas. Une autre fois je m'en irai à temps pour ne pas te faire du mal, – si toutefois tu me permets de dire : une autre fois, et si tu ne me renvoies pas à jamais de ta présence. Je n'ai qu'une excuse, c'est que je souffre. Je n'ai pas été digne de l'amour que tu m'as si généreusement et si largement donné, – je n'ose plus te demander pardon, – je t'ai tant de fois offensée !” “I am in the grips of one of my bouts of black and wild melancholy, - I can no longer see anyone. Tomorrow, I am going to go to Fontainebleau to stay there until I am healed, - I say: healed with intent because it is a kind of moral illness from which I suffer at the moment. That's why I was so bad yesterday, - I should have locked myself up, as I always do in such a case. Another time I will go sooner so as not to cause you harm, - if, nevertheless, you allow me to say: another time, and if you do not dismiss me forever from your presence. I only have one excuse, that is that I suffer. I have not been worthy of the love that you have so generously and so widely given me, - I dare not ask you anymore for forgiveness, - I have offended you so many times!”

Autograph letter signed "Pauline" by Renée Vivien addressed to Natalie Clifford Barney and written in violet ink on a double sheet bordered with violets. Transverse creases inherent to the mailing.
Icy and a fresh attempt at rupture or at the very least a rebuff, this letter is completely devoid of courtesy and tenderness: "Je ne suis pas pareille à toi, - j'ai de l'orgueil et de la fierté, - cet orgueil, tu l'as blessé, cette fierté tu l'as froissée, - je ne m'exposerai plus à des dégoûts de ce genre. Tes lettres te seront renvoyées sans être lues, - ne m'envoie pas de fleurs, elles seront refusées. Je vois peu de gens, dans l'horreur où je vis des êtres, j'en verrai moins encore, - cela me procurera peut-être la paix. Je me demande seulement pourquoi tu m'as importunée pour me revoir, si ce n'était pour m'humilier et me dégoûter de toi encore davantage. Adieu puisque je ne te reverrai plus de ma vie. Pauline" ["I am not like you, - I have pride and dignity, - you have wounded that pride, you have bruised that dignity, - I will no longer expose myself to such disgust. Your letters will be returned unread, - do not send me flowers, they will be refused. I see few people, in the horror I feel for human beings, I will see even fewer, - that will perhaps bring me peace. I only wonder why you bothered me to see me again, if it was not to humiliate me and disgust me with you even more. Farewell since I will never see you again in my life. Pauline"]
Moving letter revealing the suffering and isolation of the Muse of violets, sliding inexorably toward her tragic end.
It was at the end of 1899 and through the intermediary of Violette Shillito that Renée Vivien - then Pauline Tarn - made the acquaintance of Natalie Clifford Barney "cette Américaine plus souple qu'une écharpe, dont l'étincelant visage brille de cheveux d'or, de prunelles bleu de mer, de dents implacables" ["this American more supple than a scarf, whose sparkling face shines with golden hair, sea-blue eyes, implacable teeth"] (Colette, Claudine à Paris). Natalie, who had just experienced a summer idyll with the scandalous Liane de Pougy who had initiated her into Sapphism, paid only discrete attention to this new acquaintance. Renée, however, was completely subjugated by the young American and would relate this coup de foudre in her autobiographical novel Une Femme m'apparut: "J'évoquai l'heure déjà lointaine où je la vis pour la première fois, et le frisson qui me parcourut lorsque mes yeux rencontrèrent ses yeux d'acier mortel, ses yeux aigus et bleus comme une lame. J'eus l'obscur prescience que cette femme m'intimait l'ordre du destin, que son visage était le visage redouté de mon avenir. Je sentis près d'elle les vertiges lumineux qui montent de l'abîme, et l'appel de l'eau très profonde. Le charme du péril émanait d'elle et m'attirait inexorablement. Je n'essayai point de la fuir, car j'aurais échappé plus aisément à la mort." ["I evoked the already distant hour when I saw her for the first time, and the shiver that ran through me when my eyes met her mortal steel eyes, her sharp blue eyes like a blade. I had the obscure prescience that this woman was giving me destiny's orders, that her face was the dreaded face of my future. I felt near her the luminous vertigo that rises from the abyss, and the call of very deep water. The charm of peril emanated from her and attracted me inexorably. I did not try to flee her, for I would have escaped death more easily."] "Hiver 1899-1900. Débuts de l'idylle. Un soir, Vivien est invitée par sa nouvelle amie dans l'atelier de Mme Barney [mère de Natalie], 153 avenue Victor-Hugo, à l'angle de la rue de Longchamp. Natalie s'enhardit à lire des vers de sa composition. Comme Vivien lui dit aimer ces vers, elle lui répond qu'il vaut mieux aimer le poète. Réponse bien digne de l'Amazone." ["Winter 1899-1900. Beginning of the idyll. One evening, Vivien is invited by her new friend to Mme Barney's studio [Natalie's mother], 153 avenue Victor-Hugo, at the corner of rue de Longchamp. Natalie ventures to read verses of her composition. When Vivien tells her she loves these verses, she replies that it is better to love the poet. A response quite worthy of the Amazon."] (J.-P. Goujon, op. cit.) There followed two years of unequal happiness, punctuated by Natalie's recurring infidelities and Renée's pathological jealousy, whose letters oscillated between impassioned declarations and painful mea culpa. "Renée Vivien, c'est la fille de Sappho et de Baudelaire, c'est la fleur du mal 1900 avec des fièvres, des envols brisés, des voluptés tristes." ["Renée Vivien is the daughter of Sappho and Baudelaire, she is the flower of evil 1900 with fevers, broken flights, sad pleasures."] (Jean Chalon, Portrait d'une séductrice)
In 1901 came an important rupture that would last almost two years; Renée, despite Natalie's entreaties and the intermediaries she sent to win her back, resisted. "Les deux amies se revirent, et se fut, en août 1905, le pèlerinage à Lesbos, qui constitua une déception pour Natalie Barney et demeura sans lendemain. [...] Le ressort était définitivement brisé. Les deux anciennes amies cessèrent de se voir dès 1907, et Vivien mourut sans qu'elles se soient revues." ["The two friends saw each other again, and it was, in August 1905, the pilgrimage to Lesbos, which was a disappointment for Natalie Barney and remained without consequence. [...] The spring was definitively broken. The two former friends stopped seeing each other from 1907, and Vivien died without their having seen each other again."] (J.-P. Goujon, Ibid.)
Precious and very rare letter from Sappho 1900 to the Amazon.

Autograph letter signed "Pauline" by Renée Vivien addressed to Natalie Clifford Barney and written in violet ink on two double sheets edged with violets. Transverse folds inherent to posting.
Very fine love letter evoking the only novel by the Violet Muse, Une femme m'apparut.
"Comment aurais-je pu ne point songer à toi Natalie, moi qui écrivais « Une femme m'apparut » - qui l'écrivais pour la seconde fois avec mes yeux nouveaux, et devenus plus clairs - avec mon cœur plus calme et plus profond ?" ["How could I not have thought of you Natalie, I who was writing 'Une femme m'apparut' - who was writing it for the second time with my new eyes, which had become clearer - with my heart calmer and deeper?"]
Published in 1904, this novel - the only one of Renée's literary career - tells the love story of the narrator and "Vally," Natalie Clifford Barney, from their beginning to their tragic end and the "apparition" of the savior Hélène de Zuylen. Reconciled with the Amazon, Renée undertakes to rewrite the book which will appear at the beginning of 1906: "Literary and stylistic improvement? No. The concern to justify herself anew, but this time in the face of Natalie Barney, is beyond doubt. Remorse too: now, the apparition that gives the book its title is no longer Eva-Hélène de Zuylen, but Lorely-Natalie Barney, and this from page 2. When we know that, during the summer of 1904, unexpected reunions in Bayreuth came to unite Natalie Barney and Vivien, we better understand the meaning of this new version of the novel, [Renée] only returns to her amorous past, to deliver us a second version, revised and corrected. She thus erases the final choice she had suggested in the first version. Complete palinode, confirmed by the very text of the letters that Vivien will write to Natalie Barney in 1904 and especially in 1905." (J.-P. Goujon, Tes blessures sont plus douces que leurs caresses) This confusion of feelings shows through this letter filled with oxymorons: "je goûte une tristesse charmante à t'évoquer [...] quand je songe à toi, j'évoque ma plus belle douleur" ["I taste a charming sadness in evoking you [...] when I think of you, I evoke my most beautiful pain"] The sadness - mixed with unconditional love - is here pushed to its paroxysm: "Ne te laisse pas attrister par ma lettre grise de ce soir. Il y a des heures ternes - ce sont peut-être les meilleures - Dans tous les cas, ce sont les plus vraies [...] Et ceux qui sont, comme tu le dis « ingrats et joyeux » sont fort à plaindre." ["Do not let yourself be saddened by my grey letter this evening. There are dull hours - these are perhaps the best - In any case, these are the truest [...] And those who are, as you say 'ungrateful and joyful' are much to be pitied."] Vivien effaces herself completely in favor of her beloved, even proposing to live in her place: "Va - si tu le peux - là où je voudrais être - à Mytilène. Je verrais l'île merveilleuse à travers tes prunelles - tu me ferais respirer tous ses parfums - A dire vrai, le courage m'a manqué pour y aller. Je n'avais plus la force ni le désir de partir ainsi." ["Go - if you can - where I would like to be - to Mytilene. I would see the marvelous island through your eyes - you would make me breathe all its perfumes - To tell the truth, I lacked the courage to go there. I no longer had the strength nor the desire to leave thus."] "Ne peux-tu, toi, aller à Mytilène et me rapporter des roses de là-bas ?" ["Cannot you go to Mytilene and bring me roses from there?"] Yet, it is together that the two lovers will soon undertake the journey to Lesbos; it will be the last of their story.

It was at the end of 1899 and through Violette Shillito that Renée Vivien - then Pauline Tarn - made the acquaintance of Natalie Clifford Barney "cette Américaine plus souple qu'une écharpe, dont l'étincelant visage brille de cheveux d'or, de prunelles bleu de mer, de dents implacables" ["this American more supple than a scarf, whose sparkling face shines with golden hair, sea-blue eyes, implacable teeth"] (Colette, Claudine à Paris). Natalie, who had just lived a summer idyll with the sulfurous Liane de Pougy who had initiated her to sapphism, paid only discrete attention to this new acquaintance. Renée on the other hand was totally subjugated by the young American and will relate this love at first sight in her autobiographical novel Une Femme m'apparut: "J'évoquai l'heure déjà lointaine où je la vis pour la première fois, et le frisson qui me parcourut lorsque mes yeux rencontrèrent ses yeux d'acier mortel, ses yeux aigus et bleus comme une lame. J'eus l'obscur prescience que cette femme m'intimait l'ordre du destin, que son visage était le visage redouté de mon avenir. Je sentis près d'elle les vertiges lumineux qui montent de l'abîme, et l'appel de l'eau très profonde. Le charme du péril émanait d'elle et m'attirait inexorablement. Je n'essayai point de la fuir, car j'aurais échappé plus aisément à la mort." ["I evoked the already distant hour when I saw her for the first time, and the shiver that ran through me when my eyes met her eyes of mortal steel, her sharp blue eyes like a blade. I had the obscure presentiment that this woman was giving me the order of destiny, that her face was the dreaded face of my future. I felt near her the luminous vertigos that rise from the abyss, and the call of very deep water. The charm of peril emanated from her and attracted me inexorably. I did not try to flee her, for I would have escaped death more easily."] "Winter 1899-1900. Beginning of the idyll. One evening, Vivien is invited by her new friend to the studio of Mme Barney [Natalie's mother], 153 avenue Victor-Hugo, at the corner of rue de Longchamp. Natalie grows bold enough to read verses of her composition. When Vivien tells her she loves these verses, she replies that it is better to love the poet. A response quite worthy of the Amazon." (J.-P. Goujon, op. cit.) Two years of unequal happiness followed, punctuated by Natalie's recurring infidelities and Renée's morbid jealousy whose letters oscillate between inflamed declarations and painful mea culpa. "Renée Vivien, c'est la fille de Sappho et de Baudelaire, c'est la fleur du mal 1900 avec des fièvres, des envols brisés, des voluptés tristes." ["Renée Vivien is the daughter of Sappho and Baudelaire, she is the flower of evil 1900 with fevers, broken flights, sad voluptuousness."] (Jean Chalon, Portrait d'une séductrice)
In 1901 came an important break that would last almost two years; Renée, despite Natalie's solicitations and the intermediaries she sends to reconquer her, resists. "The two friends saw each other again, and it was, in August 1905, the pilgrimage to Lesbos, which constituted a disappointment for Natalie Barney and remained without tomorrow. [...] The spring was definitively broken. The two former friends ceased to see each other from 1907, and Vivien died without them having seen each other again." (J.-P. Goujon, Ibid.)
Precious and very rare letter from Sappho 1900 to the Amazon.

Autograph letter signed ("Pauline" and "P.M.T.") by Renée Vivien addressed to Natalie Clifford Barney and written in black ink on a double folio with silver-violet letterhead and the address 3 rue Jean-Baptiste Dumas. Transverse fold inherent to mailing.
Very fine love and reproach letter written after the long two-year separation and probably upon return from Mytilene (Lesbos): "Est-ce vraiment pour moi que tu restes demain, Tout-Petit ? ... Qui le saura jamais ? ... Ce doute, que le passé justifie un peu, entrave mes plus hautains élans, et fait de moi la créature misérable et triste que je suis." ["Is it really for me that you stay tomorrow, Little One? ... Who will ever know? ... This doubt, which the past somewhat justifies, hampers my most haughty impulses, and makes me the miserable and sad creature that I am."] Renée, weakened by Natalie's infidelities, struggles to trust her again ("Je ne puis croire en toi" ["I cannot believe in you"]) but continues, despite her suffering, to be entirely devoted to her: "Tu m'as dédaignée alors que tu aurais été pour moi la révélation miraculeuse - Tu m'as dédaignée... Et aujourd'hui, tu t'étonnes de ne point me trouver telle que tu m'aurais rêvée, toi qui n'as pas pris le soin de me façonner à ta guise ! Ecoute. Tu es comme un potier qui, voyant à ses pieds un argile informe, le repousserait, et qui, plus tard, voyant un de ses élèves en fait une statue imparfaite, exhalerait en termes amers sa colère et son dédain." ["You scorned me when you would have been for me the miraculous revelation - You scorned me... And today, you are surprised not to find me as you would have dreamed me, you who did not take the care to shape me to your liking! Listen. You are like a potter who, seeing at his feet an unformed clay, would push it away, and who, later, seeing one of his students make an imperfect statue from it, would exhale in bitter terms his anger and disdain."] Torn between pain and desire, Renée nevertheless calls for her lover: "Viens demain à minuit...si tu peux... si tu veux... si Ilse n'en décide pas autrement et si ton caprice te le permet..." ["Come tomorrow at midnight...if you can... if you want... if Ilse doesn't decide otherwise and if your whim allows it..."]
These reunions would not last however: torn between Baroness Hélène de Zuylen and Natalie, Renée would chain together travels; in turn to Holland, Germany, Switzerland and Venice, she would confide her hesitations to Kérimé Turkhan-Pacha her epistolary companion from the Bosphorus.
It was at the end of 1899 and through Violette Shillito that Renée Vivien - then Pauline Tarn - made the acquaintance of Natalie Clifford Barney "cette Américaine plus souple qu'une écharpe, dont l'étincelant visage brille de cheveux d'or, de prunelles bleu de mer, de dents implacables" ["this American more supple than a scarf, whose sparkling face shines with golden hair, sea-blue eyes, implacable teeth"] (Colette, Claudine à Paris). Natalie, who had just lived a summer idyll with the sulfurous Liane de Pougy who had initiated her into sapphism, paid only discreet attention to this new acquaintance. Renée on the other hand was totally captivated by the young American and would relate this love at first sight in her autobiographical novel Une Femme m'apparut: "J'évoquai l'heure déjà lointaine où je la vis pour la première fois, et le frisson qui me parcourut lorsque mes yeux rencontrèrent ses yeux d'acier mortel, ses yeux aigus et bleus comme une lame. J'eus l'obscur prescience que cette femme m'intimait l'ordre du destin, que son visage était le visage redouté de mon avenir. Je sentis près d'elle les vertiges lumineux qui montent de l'abîme, et l'appel de l'eau très profonde. Le charme du péril émanait d'elle et m'attirait inexorablement. Je n'essayai point de la fuir, car j'aurais échappé plus aisément à la mort." ["I evoked the already distant hour when I saw her for the first time, and the shiver that ran through me when my eyes met her eyes of mortal steel, her eyes sharp and blue like a blade. I had the obscure prescience that this woman was intimating to me the order of destiny, that her face was the dreaded face of my future. I felt near her the luminous vertigos that rise from the abyss, and the call of very deep water. The charm of peril emanated from her and attracted me inexorably. I did not try to flee her, for I would have escaped death more easily."] "Hiver 1899-1900. Débuts de l'idylle. Un soir, Vivien est invitée par sa nouvelle amie dans l'atelier de Mme Barney [mère de Natalie], 153 avenue Victor-Hugo, à l'angle de la rue de Longchamp. Natalie s'enhardit à lire des vers de sa composition. Comme Vivien lui dit aimer ces vers, elle lui répond qu'il vaut mieux aimer le poète. Réponse bien digne de l'Amazone." ["Winter 1899-1900. Beginning of the idyll. One evening, Vivien is invited by her new friend to Mme Barney's [Natalie's mother] studio, 153 avenue Victor-Hugo, at the corner of rue de Longchamp. Natalie ventures to read verses of her composition. As Vivien tells her she loves these verses, she replies that it is better to love the poet. A response quite worthy of the Amazon."] (J.-P. Goujon, Tes blessures sont plus douces que leurs caresses) Two years of unequal happiness would follow, punctuated by Natalie's recurring infidelities and Renée's pathological jealousy whose letters oscillate between inflamed declarations and painful mea culpa. "Renée Vivien, c'est la fille de Sappho et de Baudelaire, c'est la fleur du mal 1900 avec des fièvres, des envols brisés, des voluptés tristes." ["Renée Vivien is the daughter of Sappho and Baudelaire, she is the flower of evil 1900 with fevers, broken flights, sad voluptuousness."] (Jean Chalon, Portrait d'une séductrice)
In 1901 occurred an important rupture that would last almost two years; Renée, despite Natalie's entreaties and the intermediaries she sends to reconquer her, resists. "Les deux amies se revirent, et se fut, en août 1905, le pèlerinage à Lesbos, qui constitua une déception pour Natalie Barney et demeura sans lendemain. [...] Le ressort était définitivement brisé. Les deux anciennes amies cessèrent de se voir dès 1907, et Vivien mourut sans qu'elles se soient revues." ["The two friends saw each other again, and it was, in August 1905, the pilgrimage to Lesbos, which constituted a disappointment for Natalie Barney and remained without a future. [...] The spring was definitively broken. The two former friends ceased to see each other from 1907, and Vivien died without them having seen each other again."] (J.-P. Goujon, Ibid.)
Precious and very rare letter from Sappho 1900 to the Amazon.

Autograph manuscript card signed "Pauline" and addressed to Natalie Clifford Barney, written in black ink on both sides.
Two small pinholes at the top of this card which accompanied a bouquet: "Méchante d'être partie si vite ! - voici des orchidées blanches, - elles te défendront contre les doutes et les pensées tristes. Elles te protègeront et t'assureront de ma profonde et éternelle tendresse. Ne sois pas en retard ce soir. Je compterai les secondes aux battements de mon coeur. Ces fleurs, ce sont mes lèvres, mon âme et mon coeur qui vont vers toi - Toujours." ["Naughty to have left so quickly! - here are white orchids, - they will defend you against doubts and sad thoughts. They will protect you and assure you of my deep and eternal tenderness. Don't be late tonight. I will count the seconds to the beating of my heart. These flowers are my lips, my soul and my heart going towards you - Always."]
It was at the end of 1899 and through the intermediary of Violette Shillito that Renée Vivien - then Pauline Tarn - made the acquaintance of Natalie Clifford Barney "cette Américaine plus souple qu'une écharpe, dont l'étincelant visage brille de cheveux d'or, de prunelles bleu de mer, de dents implacables" ["this American more supple than a scarf, whose sparkling face shines with golden hair, sea-blue eyes, and implacable teeth"] (Colette, Claudine à Paris). Natalie, who had just experienced a summer idyll with the scandalous Liane de Pougy who had initiated her into sapphism, paid only discreet attention to this new acquaintance. Renée, however, was completely captivated by the young American and would relate this love at first sight in her autobiographical novel Une Femme m'apparut: "J'évoquai l'heure déjà lointaine où je la vis pour la première fois, et le frisson qui me parcourut lorsque mes yeux rencontrèrent ses yeux d'acier mortel, ses yeux aigus et bleus comme une lame. J'eus l'obscur prescience que cette femme m'intimait l'ordre du destin, que son visage était le visage redouté de mon avenir. Je sentis près d'elle les vertiges lumineux qui montent de l'abîme, et l'appel de l'eau très profonde. Le charme du péril émanait d'elle et m'attirait inexorablement. Je n'essayai point de la fuir, car j'aurais échappé plus aisément à la mort." ["I evoked the already distant hour when I saw her for the first time, and the shiver that ran through me when my eyes met her eyes of mortal steel, her eyes sharp and blue like a blade. I had the obscure presentiment that this woman was giving me destiny's order, that her face was the dreaded face of my future. I felt near her the luminous vertigo that rises from the abyss, and the call of very deep water. The charm of peril emanated from her and attracted me inexorably. I did not try to flee her, for I would have escaped death more easily."] "Hiver 1899-1900. Débuts de l'idylle. Un soir, Vivien est invitée par sa nouvelle amie dans l'atelier de Mme Barney [mère de Natalie], 153 avenue Victor-Hugo, à l'angle de la rue de Longchamp. Natalie s'enhardit à lire des vers de sa composition. Comme Vivien lui dit aimer ces vers, elle lui répond qu'il vaut mieux aimer le poète. Réponse bien digne de l'Amazone." ["Winter 1899-1900. Beginning of the idyll. One evening, Vivien is invited by her new friend to Mme Barney's studio [Natalie's mother], 153 avenue Victor-Hugo, at the corner of rue de Longchamp. Natalie ventures to read verses of her composition. When Vivien tells her she loves these verses, she replies that it is better to love the poet. A response quite worthy of the Amazon."] (J.-P. Goujon, Tes blessures sont plus douces que leurs caresses) Two years of unequal happiness followed, punctuated by Natalie's recurring infidelities and Renée's pathological jealousy, whose letters oscillated between impassioned declarations and painful mea culpas. "Renée Vivien, c'est la fille de Sappho et de Baudelaire, c'est la fleur du mal 1900 avec des fièvres, des envols brisés, des voluptés tristes." ["Renée Vivien is the daughter of Sappho and Baudelaire, she is the flower of evil 1900 with fevers, broken flights, sad voluptuousness."] (Jean Chalon, Portrait d'une séductrice)
In 1901 came a major rupture which lasted almost two years; Renée, despite Natalie's solicitations and the intermediaries she sent to reconquer her, resisted. "Les deux amies se revirent, et se fut, en août 1905, le pèlerinage à Lesbos, qui constitua une déception pour Natalie Barney et demeura sans lendemain. [...] Le ressort était définitivement brisé. Les deux anciennes amies cessèrent de se voir dès 1907, et Vivien mourut sans qu'elles se soient revues." ["The two friends saw each other again, and there was, in August 1905, the pilgrimage to Lesbos, which was a disappointment for Natalie Barney and remained without sequel. [...] The spring was definitively broken. The two former friends ceased to see each other from 1907, and Vivien died without them having met again."] (J.-P. Goujon, Ibid.)
Precious and very rare card from Sappho 1900 to the Amazon.

Autograph manuscript card signed "Pauline" and addressed to Natalie Clifford Barney, written in black ink on both sides.
"Repose-toi aujourd'hui, chérie. Je suis inquiète de toi et cela me rend affreusement triste. Repose-toi bien n'est-ce pas ? Mon si fragile bonheur, sois très prudente et ménage ta jolie santé frêle qui m'est si précieuse. A ce soir, mais si tu es fatiguée, envoie-moi un mot, je viendrai chez toi." ["Rest today, darling. I am worried about you and it makes me terribly sad. Rest well, won't you? My so fragile happiness, be very careful and take care of your pretty frail health which is so precious to me. Until tonight, but if you are tired, send me a word, I will come to you."]
It was at the end of 1899 and through Violette Shillito that Renée Vivien - then Pauline Tarn - made the acquaintance of Natalie Clifford Barney "this American more supple than a scarf, whose sparkling face shines with golden hair, sea-blue eyes, and implacable teeth" (Colette, Claudine à Paris). Natalie, who had just lived a summer idyll with the sulfurous Liane de Pougy who had initiated her into sapphism, paid only discreet attention to this new acquaintance. Renée, however, was totally captivated by the young American and would relate this love at first sight in her autobiographical novel Une Femme m'apparut: "I evoked the already distant hour when I saw her for the first time, and the shiver that ran through me when my eyes met her eyes of mortal steel, her sharp blue eyes like a blade. I had the obscure presentiment that this woman was giving me destiny's order, that her face was the dreaded face of my future. I felt near her the luminous vertigo that rises from the abyss, and the call of very deep water. The charm of peril emanated from her and attracted me inexorably. I did not try to flee her, for I would have escaped death more easily." "Winter 1899-1900. Beginning of the idyll. One evening, Vivien is invited by her new friend to Mme Barney's studio [Natalie's mother], 153 avenue Victor-Hugo, at the corner of rue de Longchamp. Natalie ventures to read verses of her own composition. When Vivien tells her she loves these verses, she replies that it is better to love the poet. A response quite worthy of the Amazon." (J.-P. Goujon, Tes blessures sont plus douces que leurs caresses) Two years of unequal happiness followed, punctuated by Natalie's recurring infidelities and Renée's pathological jealousy, whose letters oscillated between passionate declarations and painful mea culpa. "Renée Vivien is the daughter of Sappho and Baudelaire, she is the flower of evil 1900 with fevers, broken flights, sad voluptuousness." (Jean Chalon, Portrait d'une séductrice)
In 1901 came an important rupture that would last almost two years; Renée, despite Natalie's solicitations and the intermediaries she sends to win her back, resists. "The two friends saw each other again, and it was, in August 1905, the pilgrimage to Lesbos, which constituted a disappointment for Natalie Barney and remained without consequence. [...] The spring was definitively broken. The two former friends ceased to see each other from 1907, and Vivien died without their having met again." (J.-P. Goujon, Ibid.)
Precious and very rare card from Sappho 1900 to the Amazon.

Autograph manuscript letter by Renée Vivien signed "Pauline," addressed to Natalie Clifford Barney and written in black ink on a double sheet with the poetess's silver monogram letterhead.
A very charming letter evoking the flowers so dear to Renée ("Tout-Petit que j'aime, je t'envoie des pensées, toutes blanches. Garde-les dans ta chambre, auprès de toi, où sont mes vraies pensées, tu le sais." ["Little one I love, I send you pansies, all white. Keep them in your room, near you, where my true thoughts are, you know."]) as well as a gift from her "tout petit chéri" ["dear little one"]: "J'adore mes tablettes, tu te rappelles les tablettes des deux petites joueuses de flûte ? - seulement, elles les ont perdues, et moi, je ne veux pas perdre les miennes. J'ai écrit dessus [en grec] J'aime Natalie ! Cela m'a fait tant de plaisir ! - quelle bonne et jolie pensée tu as eue là ! -" ["I adore my tablets, do you remember the tablets of the two little flute players? - only, they lost them, and I don't want to lose mine. I wrote on them [in Greek] I love Natalie! It gave me such pleasure! - what a good and lovely thought you had there! -"] Renée Vivien's Hellenist passion was born from her encounter with Eva Palmer during their stay in the United States where she accompanied Natalie Clifford Barney. This beautiful twenty-six-year-old redhead who, it is said, had translated all of Plato's Symposium with the Amazon, gave Renée her first lessons in ancient Greek and awakened in her the passion for the poetess Sappho that never left her thereafter.
It was at the end of 1899 and through Violette Shillito that Renée Vivien - then Pauline Tarn - made the acquaintance of Natalie Clifford Barney "this American more supple than a scarf, whose sparkling face shines with golden hair, sea-blue eyes, and implacable teeth" (Colette, Claudine à Paris). Natalie, who had just lived a summer idyll with the sulfurous Liane de Pougy who had initiated her into sapphism, paid only discreet attention to this new acquaintance. Renée, however, was totally captivated by the young American and would relate this love at first sight in her autobiographical novel Une Femme m'apparut: "I evoked the already distant hour when I saw her for the first time, and the shiver that ran through me when my eyes met her eyes of mortal steel, her sharp blue eyes like a blade. I had the obscure presentiment that this woman was giving me destiny's order, that her face was the dreaded face of my future. I felt near her the luminous vertigo that rises from the abyss, and the call of very deep water. The charm of peril emanated from her and attracted me inexorably. I did not try to flee her, for I would have escaped death more easily." "Winter 1899-1900. Beginning of the idyll. One evening, Vivien is invited by her new friend to Mme Barney's studio [Natalie's mother], 153 avenue Victor-Hugo, at the corner of rue de Longchamp. Natalie ventures to read verses of her own composition. When Vivien tells her she loves these verses, she replies that it is better to love the poet. A response quite worthy of the Amazon." (J.-P. Goujon, Tes blessures sont plus douces que leurs caresses) Two years of unequal happiness followed, punctuated by Natalie's recurring infidelities and Renée's pathological jealousy, whose letters oscillated between passionate declarations and painful mea culpa. "Renée Vivien is the daughter of Sappho and Baudelaire, she is the flower of evil 1900 with fevers, broken flights, sad voluptuousness." (Jean Chalon, Portrait d'une séductrice)
In 1901 came an important rupture that would last almost two years; Renée, despite Natalie's solicitations and the intermediaries she sends to win her back, resists. "The two friends saw each other again, and it was, in August 1905, the pilgrimage to Lesbos, which constituted a disappointment for Natalie Barney and remained without consequence. [...] The spring was definitively broken. The two former friends ceased to see each other from 1907, and Vivien died without their having met again." (J.-P. Goujon, Ibid.)
Precious and very rare letter from Sappho 1900 to the Amazon.

Autograph letter from Renée Vivien addressed to Natalie Clifford Barney and written in black ink on a double sheet bordered with a violet trim. Transverse fold inherent to mailing.
A beautiful love letter marking the reconciliation of the Muse of Violets and the Amazon after a two-year separation: "Your letter was cruelly sweet to me, I wept reading it and something within me rejoiced despite everything to think that between us the bond was so powerful and subtle that only death could entirely untie it, if death is definitive."
Weary and very jealous of Natalie's infidelities, Renée had made the radical decision to leave her. The Amazon had then, by every means, attempted to win her back, sending emissaries as well as numerous letters: "My tears have flowed over all the letters you have sent me since the silence that had settled between us." Renée seems this time to have broken her promise never to see Natalie again and addresses this beautiful declaration to her, full of hope for the future: "Forget you! But my lips, which are the soul of my soul, have kept your reflection and your imprint. [...] Something in [me] has been broken since then, from having loved too blindly. But if it is true that there remain within us unknown tenderness and ignored sweetness that we can still lavish upon each other in a better future, let us not hesitate to discover them in the depths of our souls. I would like to take you in my arms, my Little One, like a sick child, and rock you, and console you, and heal you, and see the smiles of yesteryear bloom again on your lips. You must no longer suffer for me, my Blonde Sweetness, I love you, I will heal you." These reunions would not last however: torn between Baroness Hélène de Zuylen and Natalie, Renée would embark on a series of travels; in turn to Holland, Germany, Switzerland and Venice, she would confide her hesitations to Kérimé Turkhan-Pacha, her epistolary companion from the Bosphorus whom she would meet in the summer of 1905 during her last journey with Natalie Clifford Barney to Mytilene.
A moving letter from Renée Vivien, addressed to the great love of her life.
It was at the end of 1899 and through Violette Shillito that Renée Vivien - then Pauline Tarn - made the acquaintance of Natalie Clifford Barney "cette Américaine plus souple qu'une écharpe, dont l'étincelant visage brille de cheveux d'or, de prunelles bleu de mer, de dents implacables" ["this American more supple than a scarf, whose sparkling face shines with golden hair, sea-blue eyes, implacable teeth"] (Colette, Claudine à Paris). Natalie, who had just experienced a summer idyll with the scandalous Liane de Pougy who had initiated her into sapphism, paid only discreet attention to this new acquaintance. Renée on the other hand was completely captivated by the young American and would relate this love at first sight in her autobiographical novel Une Femme m'apparut: « J'évoquai l'heure déjà lointaine où je la vis pour la première fois, et le frisson qui me parcourut lorsque mes yeux rencontrèrent ses yeux d'acier mortel, ses yeux aigus et bleus comme une lame. J'eus l'obscur prescience que cette femme m'intimait l'ordre du destin, que son visage était le visage redouté de mon avenir. Je sentis près d'elle les vertiges lumineux qui montent de l'abîme, et l'appel de l'eau très profonde. Le charme du péril émanait d'elle et m'attirait inexorablement. Je n'essayai point de la fuir, car j'aurais échappé plus aisément à la mort. » ["I evoked the already distant hour when I saw her for the first time, and the shiver that ran through me when my eyes met her mortal steel eyes, her sharp blue eyes like a blade. I had the obscure prescience that this woman was giving me fate's order, that her face was the dreaded face of my future. I felt near her the luminous vertigo that rises from the abyss, and the call of very deep water. The charm of peril emanated from her and attracted me inexorably. I did not try to flee her, for I would have escaped death more easily."] « Hiver 1899-1900. Débuts de l'idylle. Un soir, Vivien est invitée par sa nouvelle amie dans l'atelier de Mme Barney [mère de Natalie], 153 avenue Victor-Hugo, à l'angle de la rue de Longchamp. Natalie s'enhardit à lire des vers de sa composition. Comme Vivien lui dit aimer ces vers, elle lui répond qu'il vaut mieux aimer le poète. Réponse bien digne de l'Amazone. » ["Winter 1899-1900. Beginning of the idyll. One evening, Vivien is invited by her new friend to Mme Barney's studio [Natalie's mother], 153 avenue Victor-Hugo, at the corner of rue de Longchamp. Natalie ventures to read verses of her composition. When Vivien tells her she loves these verses, she replies that it is better to love the poet. A response quite worthy of the Amazon."] (J.-P. Goujon, Tes blessures sont plus douces que leurs caresses) Two years of unequal happiness would follow, punctuated by Natalie's recurring infidelities and Renée's pathological jealousy, whose letters oscillated between passionate declarations and painful mea culpa. « Renée Vivien, c'est la fille de Sappho et de Baudelaire, c'est la fleur du mal 1900 avec des fièvres, des envols brisés, des voluptés tristes. » ["Renée Vivien is the daughter of Sappho and Baudelaire, she is the flower of evil 1900 with fevers, broken flights, sad voluptuousness."] (Jean Chalon, Portrait d'une séductrice)
In 1901 came an important break that would last almost two years; Renée, despite Natalie's solicitations and the intermediaries she sent to win her back, resisted. « Les deux amies se revirent, et se fut, en août 1905, le pèlerinage à Lesbos, qui constitua une déception pour Natalie Barney et demeura sans lendemain. [...] Le ressort était définitivement brisé. Les deux anciennes amies cessèrent de se voir dès 1907, et Vivien mourut sans qu'elles se soient revues. » ["The two friends saw each other again, and it was, in August 1905, the pilgrimage to Lesbos, which constituted a disappointment for Natalie Barney and remained without a tomorrow. [...] The spring was definitively broken. The two former friends ceased to see each other from 1907, and Vivien died without their having seen each other again."] (J.-P. Goujon, Ibid.)
Precious and very rare letter from Sappho 1900 to the Amazon.

Autograph letter signed "Pauline" by Renée Vivien, addressed to Natalie Clifford Barney and written in black ink on a double sheet with the poetess's silver monogram letterhead.
Very beautiful and poetic love letter from the Muse of violets, languishing for her "dear white Lily": "Je n'ai pas pu te demander cet après-midi si je te verrais demain, mon doux Avril, mais tu as bien compris n'est-ce pas ? qu'il me serait aussi impossible de vivre un jour sans toi, que de me priver des lumières, du soleil ou des fleurs. [...] Avril, mon doux petit Avril, chaque fois que tu t'en vas, tu emportes un peu de mon cœur, qui ne peut se détacher de toi, et te suit tristement. Tu es pour moi la poésie, la consolation et le rêve. Tu mets de la beauté dans ma vie et dans mon âme - quand je me réveille chaque jour et je pense à toi, c'est la perpétuelle éclosion de quelque miraculeuse amour. Je vis dans un conte de fées, un pays où tout est bleu et d'où la tristesse a disparu. Pense à moi ce soir, avant d'aller rêver dans l'au-delà et le lointain du sommeil." ["I could not ask you this afternoon if I would see you tomorrow, my sweet April, but you understood, didn't you? that it would be as impossible for me to live a day without you as to deprive myself of light, sun or flowers. [...] April, my sweet little April, each time you leave, you take with you a piece of my heart, which cannot detach itself from you, and follows you sadly. You are for me poetry, consolation and dream. You bring beauty into my life and into my soul - when I wake each day and think of you, it is the perpetual blossoming of some miraculous love. I live in a fairy tale, a country where everything is blue and from which sadness has disappeared. Think of me tonight, before going to dream in the beyond and the distance of sleep."]
The letter then takes on a more sensual tone: "J'aime tes cheveux blonds. Je leur envoie un long baiser. Les lys que j'ai dans ma chambre sont tristes parce que tu n'es plus là. Ils t'envoient leur âme dans un parfum. Ils t'aiment, comme moi ; mais moins que moi." ["I love your blonde hair. I send them a long kiss. The lilies I have in my room are sad because you are no longer there. They send you their soul in a fragrance. They love you, like me; but less than me."] During their first night of love, Renée had filled her room with lilies, transforming it into a "chapelle ardente" (N.Clifford Barney, Je me souviens...). Jean-Paul Goujon notes: "The choice of lilies was very much in the taste of the period: let us remember Mucha's posters, Schwabe's paintings, Lorrain's poems. But Vivien, who certainly remembered certain pages, filled with flowers and perfumes, from Zola's La Faute de l'abbé Mouret, seems to have wanted to celebrate mystical nuptials coupled with a sort of perfumed death."
It was at the end of 1899 and through Violette Shillito that Renée Vivien - then Pauline Tarn - made the acquaintance of Natalie Clifford Barney "cette Américaine plus souple qu'une écharpe, dont l'étincelant visage brille de cheveux d'or, de prunelles bleu de mer, de dents implacables" ["this American more supple than a scarf, whose sparkling face shines with golden hair, sea-blue eyes, implacable teeth"] (Colette, Claudine à Paris). Natalie, who had just lived through a summer idyll with the scandalous Liane de Pougy who initiated her into Sapphism, paid only discreet attention to this new acquaintance. Renée, however, was totally captivated by the young American and would relate this coup de foudre in her autobiographical novel Une Femme m'apparut: "J'évoquai l'heure déjà lointaine où je la vis pour la première fois, et le frisson qui me parcourut lorsque mes yeux rencontrèrent ses yeux d'acier mortel, ses yeux aigus et bleus comme une lame. J'eus l'obscur prescience que cette femme m'intimait l'ordre du destin, que son visage était le visage redouté de mon avenir. Je sentis près d'elle les vertiges lumineux qui montent de l'abîme, et l'appel de l'eau très profonde. Le charme du péril émanait d'elle et m'attirait inexorablement. Je n'essayai point de la fuir, car j'aurais échappé plus aisément à la mort." ["I evoked the already distant hour when I saw her for the first time, and the shiver that ran through me when my eyes met her mortal steel eyes, her sharp and blue eyes like a blade. I had the obscure prescience that this woman was giving me the order of destiny, that her face was the dreaded face of my future. I felt near her the luminous vertigo that rises from the abyss, and the call of very deep water. The charm of peril emanated from her and attracted me inexorably. I did not try to flee her, for I would have escaped death more easily."] "Winter 1899-1900. Beginning of the idyll. One evening, Vivien is invited by her new friend to the studio of Mme Barney [Natalie's mother], 153 avenue Victor-Hugo, at the corner of rue de Longchamp. Natalie ventures to read verses of her composition. When Vivien tells her she loves these verses, she replies that it is better to love the poet. An answer quite worthy of the Amazon." (J.-P. Goujon, Tes blessures sont plus douces que leurs caresses) There followed two years of unequal happiness, punctuated by Natalie's recurring infidelities and Renée's morbid jealousy, whose letters oscillate between passionate declarations and painful mea culpa. "Renée Vivien is the daughter of Sappho and Baudelaire, she is the flower of evil 1900 with fevers, broken flights, sad voluptuousness." (Jean Chalon, Portrait d'une séductrice)
In 1901 came an important break that would last almost two years; Renée, despite Natalie's solicitations and the intermediaries she sent to win her back, resisted. "The two friends saw each other again, and it was, in August 1905, the pilgrimage to Lesbos, which constituted a disappointment for Natalie Barney and remained without tomorrow. [...] The spring was definitively broken. The two former friends stopped seeing each other from 1907, and Vivien died without their having seen each other again." (J.-P. Goujon, Ibid.)
Precious and very rare letter from Sappho 1900 to the Amazon.

Handwritten letter addressed to Natalie Clifford Barney: “Je t'écris ce mot dans le train, tu t'en apercevras vite en observant l'irrégularité de mon écriture.” “I write this to you on the train, you will quickly notice that by observing the irregularity of my handwriting.”
s.l Friday evening [Spring 1900], 12.5 x 8.4 cm, 6 pages on 3 cards
Handwritten letter from Renée Vivien, written in pencil on three blue cards with the poet's monogram. This letter has been published in “Renée Vivien et ses masques” (in A l'Encart n°2 April 1980)
A very beautiful letter written on a train: “Je t'écris ce mot dans le train, tu t'en apercevras vite en observant l'irrégularité de mon écriture.” “I write this to you on the train, you will quickly notice that by observing the irregularity of my handwriting.”
Renée had just left her “cher petit amour” “dear little love” for a short stay outside of Paris: “Quelle folie de me séparer de toi, même pour deux jours, et comme je le regrette amèrement maintenant : - Seulement j'étais inquiète, tu sais, une fois rassurée j'aurai l'esprit tranquille désormais, et je pensais goûter un bonheur absolu et parfait, dans ton ombre, tout près de toi. Comment ai-je pu être assez stupide et assez folle pour m'en aller ! Deux jours, c'est si long ! C'est deux éternités de joie dont je me prive, par ma bête faute ! - Vois-tu, je t'aime à ne pouvoir vivre sans toi. Ne plus te voir est une souffrance accablante. Pense à moi, Lys blanc - Lys blanc aime-moi, car je suis triste ce soir.” “What madness to separate myself from you, even for two days, and as I bitterly regret it now: - Only I was worried, you know, once reassured I will have peace of mind from now on, and I thought I would taste absolute and perfect happiness in your shadow, very close to you. How could I be stupid enough and crazy enough to go away! Two days is so long! It is two eternities of joy that I deprive myself of, by my own stupid fault! - You see, I love you and cannot live without you. Not seeing you again is an overwhelming suffering. Think of me, White Lilly - White Lilly love me, because I am sad this evening.” In this letter we encounter Vivien's obsession with flowers: “J'ai reçu avant de partir l'adorable petit bouquet de violettes blanches que tu m'as si tendrement envoyé et le cher petit mot qui m'a touchée comme une plainte d'enfant triste.” “Before leaving I received the adorable little bouquet of white violets that you so tenderly sent and the dear little note that touched me like a sad child's complaint.”
It is at the end of 1899 and through Violette Shillito that Renée Vivien - then Pauline Tarn - met Natalie Clifford Barney “cette Américaine plus souple qu'une écharpe, dont l'étincelant visage brille de cheveux d'or, de prunelles bleu de mer, de dents implacables” “this American woman softer than a scarf, whose sparkling face shines with golden hair, sea blue eyes, never-ending teeth” (Colette, Claudine à Paris). Natalie, who had just experienced a summer romance with the scandalous Liane de Pougy who introduced her to sapphism, paid little attention to this new acquaintance. Renée, on the other hand, was totally captivated by the young American woman and describes this love at first sight in her autobiographical novel, Une Femme m'apparut: “J'évoquai l'heure déjà lointaine où je la vis pour la première fois, et le frisson qui me parcourut lorsque mes yeux rencontrèrent ses yeux d'acier mortel, ses yeux aigus et bleus comme une lame. J'eus l'obscur prescience que cette femme m'intimait l'ordre du destin, que son visage était le visage redouté de mon avenir. Je sentis près d'elle les vertiges lumineux qui montent de l'abîme, et l'appel de l'eau très profonde. Le charme du péril émanait d'elle et m'attirait inexorablement. Je n'essayai point de la fuir, car j'aurais échappé plus aisément à la mort.” “I lived again the hour, already well past, when I saw her for the first time, felt the shiver that ran through me when my eyes met the mortal steel of her look, those eyes blue and piercing as a blade. I had a dim premonition that this woman would determine the pattern of my fate, and that her face was the predestined face of my Future. Near her I felt the luminous dizziness which comes at the edge of an abyss, or the attraction of a very deep water. She radiated the charm of danger, which drew me to her inexorably.” “Hiver 1899-1900. Débuts de l'idylle. Un soir, Vivien est invitée par sa nouvelle amie dans l'atelier de Mme Barney [mère de Natalie], 153 avenue Victor-Hugo, à l'angle de la rue de Longchamp. Natalie s'enhardit à lire des vers de sa composition. Comme Vivien lui dit aimer ces vers, elle lui répond qu'il vaut mieux aimer le poète. Réponse bien digne de l'Amazone.” “Winter 1899-1900. Beginnings of the idyll. One evening, Vivien is invited by her new friend to Mme Barney's studio [Natalie's mother], 153 avenue Victor-Hugo, on the corner of the rue de Longchamp. Natalie finds the courage to read the verses of her composition. As Vivien tells her to love these verses, she tells her that it is better to love the poet. A response worthy of the Amazon.” (J.-P. Goujon, Tes blessures sont plus douces que leurs caresses) Two years of unequal happiness will follow, punctuated by Natalie's recurring infidelities and Renée's sickly jealousy, the letters of which oscillate between inflamed declarations and painful admissions of guilt. “Renée Vivien, c'est la fille de Sappho et de Baudelaire, c'est la fleur du mal 1900 avec des fièvres, des envols brisés, des voluptés tristes.” “Renée Vivien is the daughter of Sappho and Baudelaire, she is the 1900 flower of evil with fevers, broken-up fights, sad delights.” (Jean Chalon, Portrait d›une séductrice)
In 1901, a major break-up occurred which lasted almost two years; Renée, despite requests from Natalie and the others she sent to win her back, resisted. “Les deux amies se revirent, et se fut, en août 1905, le pèlerinage à Lesbos, qui constitua une déception pour Natalie Barney et demeura sans lendemain. [...] Le ressort était définitivement brisé. Les deux anciennes amies cessèrent de se voir dès 1907, et Vivien mourut sans qu'elles se soient revues.” “The two friends saw each other again, and in August 1905, went on a pilgrimage to Lesbos, which was a disappointment for Natalie Barney and was short-lived. [...] The spring was broken once and for all. The two former friends stopped seeing each other in 1907, and Vivien died without them seeing each other again.” (J.-P. Goujon, Ibid.)

Handwritten poem to Kérimé « Que la volupté est triste...!» [Paroles soupirées]Handwritten poem entitled « Que la volupté est triste... ! », dedicated and offered to Kérimé. Half a page written in black ink on a leaf of headed paper from the Constantinople Péra-Palace & Summer-Palace, a total of 15 alexandrine verses.
The poem was published under the title «Paroles soupirées» in Flambeaux éteints (Edward Sansot & C^ie, 1907). This first manuscript version has several variations from the printed text. Some verses have even been totally abandoned: “Pareille au chant brisé qui vient nous décevoir,/ Avec les cierges d'or allumés dans le soir”.
Quelle tristesse après le plaisir, mon amie,
Quand le dernier baiser, plus triste qu'un sanglot,
S'échappe en frémissant de ta bouche blêmie,
Et que, mélancolique et lente, sans un mot,
Tu t'éloignes à pas songeurs, ô mon amie!
Pareille à la douleur des adieux, dans le soir,
L'angoisse qui vient de la volupté lasse!
Pareille au chant brisé qui vient nous décevoir,
Pareille au noir cortège impérial qui passe
Avec les cierges d'or allumés dans le soir...
Et je te sens déçue et je me sens lointaine...
Nous demeurons, avec les yeux de l'exilé,
Suivant, tandis qu'un fil d'or frêle nous enchaîne,
Du même regard las notre rêve envolé...
Autre déjà, tu me souris, déjà lointaine...

Provenance: Kérimé Turkhan-Pacha.



The Sappho lover and her sofa muse

Considered as a literary work in its own right, Renée Vivien's correspondence with Kérimé Turkhan-Pacha is sprinkled with very rare poems that enhance the poet's romantic passion for her oriental muse.
In spring 1904, Vivien received an unexpected letter. A mysterious young Turkish woman, living in Constantinople and who signed Kérimé Turkhan-Pacha, enthusiastically told her about a book she had just read. [...] Intrigued and at the same time flattered, Vivien responded to the unknown woman [...] This letter was to be followed by more than a hundred others and dozens of postcards to Kérimé Turkhan-Pacha. [...] During the summer of 1905, when Vivien will make a pilgrimage to Lesbos with Natalie Barney, she will absolutely stop in Constantinople to get to know the fictional (as she imaged) Kérimé. She saw her again several times, always in Constantinople, and their correspondence continued until 1908. Born in 1876, Kérimé Turkhan-Pacha belonged to the Constantinople high society. Very cultured, raised French, she shone in the salons of the Ottoman capital. She was distinguished by her real beauty [...]. This seductive creature, whom Vivien had to imagine languishing on cushions in the shade of a Bosphorus harem, had married a Turk much older than her around 1900, Turkhan-Pacha. [...] Becoming a widow, Kérimé lived in Paris, where she had the opportunity to court Natalie Barney; she died in Athens in 1948. Worldly and very beautiful, [...] Kérimé belonged to the Turkish elite [..] whose women began to change their mentality. Just like Loti's Désenchantées [...] Kérimé found it troublesome to support the old customs of her country. «I was very young and I was cloistered away and aspired only to bite all the forbidden fruits», she told Le Dantec. [...] For Vivien, Kérimé represented the mirage of the East, which had already fascinated the entire 19th century: Chateaubriand, Delacroix, Nerval, Flaubert, Loti, Barrès... Turkish romanticism then permeated French literature. In 1898 Jean Lorrain had published La Dame turque (another pasha woman...) and in 1906 Loti would publish his famous novel Les Désenchantées." (J.-P. Goujon, Tes blessures sont plus douces que leurs caresses)

This superb elegy with its "Bosphorus sultana" takes up all the elements of this aesthetic mythology in a superb sapphic reappropriation of the languor and sensuality of the fantasized East.

Exceptionally rare, the manuscripts to the lovers of this icon of modern lesbianism are missing from most public collections, with the notable exception of the Jacques Doucet collection, which includes nine poems from Vivien to Natalie Clifford Barney.

Only these four manuscript poems to Kérimé are known to date.

Handwritten poem to Kérimé « Je cacherai ma flûte »
Handwritten poem entitled « Je cacherai ma flûte », dedicated and offered to Kérimé («Pour le petit faune »). One and a half pages written in purple ink on two leaves edged with border of violets, in total 32 alexandrine verses.
The poem was published under the same title in Flambeaux éteints (Edward Sansot & C^ie, 1907). This first manuscript version has some variations from the printed text.
Je m'écoute, avec des frissons ardents,
Moi, le petit faune au regard farouche...
L'âme des forêts vit entre mes dents
Et le Dieu du rythme habite ma bouche.
Dans ce bois, loin des aegipans rôdeurs
Mon cœur est plus doux qu'une rose ouverte;
Les rayons, chargés d'heureuses odeurs,
Dansent au son frais de ma flûte verte.
Mêlez vos cheveux et joignez vos bras
Sur l'herbe humide où le bélier s'ébroue,
Nymphes des halliers! – ne m'approchez pas,
Allez rire ailleurs pendant que je joue.
Car j'ai la pudeur de mon art sacré,
Et, pour honorer la muse hautaine
Je chercherai l'ombre et je cacherai
Mes pipeaux vibrants dans le creux d'un chêne.
Parmi la tiédeur, parmi les parfums,
Je jouerai le long du jour, jusqu'à l'heure
Des chœurs turbulents et des jeux communs
Et des seins offerts que la brise effleure.
Je tairai mon chant pieux et loyal
Aux amants de vin, aux chercheurs de proie
Seul le vent du soir apprendra mon mal
Et les arbres seuls apprendront ma joie.
Je défends ainsi mes instants meilleurs...
Vous qui m'épiez de vos yeux de chèvres,
Ô mes compagnons! allez rire ailleurs
Pendant que le chant fleurit sur mes lèvres.
Sinon, — je suis faune après tout, si beau
Que soit mon chant, — et, bouc qui se rebiffe,
Je me vengerai d'un coup de sabot
Et d'un coup de corne et d'un coup de griffe.

Provenance: Kérimé Turkhan-Pacha.



The Sappho lover and her sofa muse

Considered as a literary work in its own right, Renée Vivien's correspondence with Kérimé Turkhan-Pacha is sprinkled with very rare poems that enhance the poet's romantic passion for her oriental muse.
In spring 1904, Vivien received an unexpected letter. A mysterious young Turkish woman, living in Constantinople and who signed Kérimé Turkhan-Pacha, enthusiastically told her about a book she had just read. [...] Intrigued and at the same time flattered, Vivien responded to the unknown woman [...] This letter was to be followed by more than a hundred others and dozens of postcards to Kérimé Turkhan-Pacha. [...] During the summer of 1905, when Vivien will make a pilgrimage to Lesbos with Natalie Barney, she will absolutely stop in Constantinople to get to know the fictional (as she imaged) Kérimé. She saw her again several times, always in Constantinople, and their correspondence continued until 1908. Born in 1876, Kérimé Turkhan-Pacha belonged to the Constantinople high society. Very cultured, raised French, she shone in the salons of the Ottoman capital. She was distinguished by her real beauty [...]. This seductive creature, whom Vivien had to imagine languishing on cushions in the shade of a Bosphorus harem, had married a Turk much older than her around 1900, Turkhan-Pacha. [...] Becoming a widow, Kérimé lived in Paris, where she had the opportunity to court Natalie Barney; she died in Athens in 1948. Worldly and very beautiful, [...] Kérimé belonged to the Turkish elite [..] whose women began to change their mentality. Just like Loti's Désenchantées [...] Kérimé found it troublesome to support the old customs of her country. «I was very young and I was cloistered away and aspired only to bite all the forbidden fruits», she told Le Dantec. [...] For Vivien, Kérimé represented the mirage of the East, which had already fascinated the entire 19th century: Chateaubriand, Delacroix, Nerval, Flaubert, Loti, Barrès... Turkish romanticism then permeated French literature. In 1898 Jean Lorrain had published La Dame turque (another pasha woman...) and in 1906 Loti would publish his famous novel Les Désenchantées." (J.-P. Goujon, Tes blessures sont plus douces que leurs caresses)

This superb elegy with its "Bosphorus sultana" takes up all the elements of this aesthetic mythology in a superb sapphic reappropriation of the languor and sensuality of the fantasized East.

Exceptionally rare, the manuscripts to the lovers of this icon of modern lesbianism are missing from most public collections, with the notable exception of the Jacques Doucet collection, which includes nine poems from Vivien to Natalie Clifford Barney.

Only these four manuscript poems to Kérimé are known to date.

First edition printed with a small number of copies.
A poem by Renée Vivien at the top of the work.
A beautiful and very rare copy.
In memoriam...

Unpublished handwritten poem to Natalie Clifford Barney « à l'absente »

20 March 1900 | 10 x 15,7 cm | 2 pages on a double leafHandwritten poem entitled « à l'absente » (“To the absent one”) and addressed to Natalie Clifford Barney. Two pages written in black ink on a double leaf, headed 24 Hyde Park Street.

To our knowledge, this three-verse, octosyllabic poem is unpublished. It is preceded, on the first section of this double leaf, by a little handwritten message: “These are the verses I have made, – I would rather say the tears which I have shed – for you. Turn the page, you will find them there, in all their melancholy.”

Oui, c'est toi mon rêve suprême
Pendant ces longs, ces mornes jours
Où je pleure au fond de moi-même
L'exil triste de mes amours!
[...] N'as-tu pas entendu, ma blonde,
Le bruit d'un sanglot qui revient
Dans le cœur de la nuit profonde ?
C'est mon amour qui se souvient.

It is at the end of 1899 and through Violette Shillito that Renée Vivien – then Pauline Tarn – met Natalie Clifford Barney "this American woman softer than a scarf, whose sparkling face shines with golden hair, sea blue eyes, never-ending teeth" (Colette, Claudine à Paris). Natalie, who had just experienced a summer romance with the scandalous Liane de Pougy who introduced her to sapphism, paid little attention to this new acquaintance. Renée, on the other hand, was totally captivated by the young American woman and describes this love at first sight in her autobiographical novel, Une femme m'apparut: "I lived again the hour, already well past, when I saw her for the first time, felt the shiver that ran through me when my eyes met the mortal steel of her look, those eyes blue and piercing as a blade. I had a dim premonition that this woman would determine the pattern of my fate, and that her face was the predestined face of my Future. Near her I felt the luminous dizziness which comes at the edge of an abyss, or the attraction of a very deep water. She radiated the charm of danger, which drew me to her inexorably." "Winter 1899-1900. Beginnings of the idyll. One evening, Vivien is invited by her new friend to Mme Barney's studio [Natalie's mother], 153 avenue Victor-Hugo, on the corner of the rue de Longchamp. Natalie finds the courage to read the verses of her composition. As Vivien tells her to love these verses, she tells her that it is better to love the poet. A response worthy of the Amazon." (J.-P. Goujon, Tes blessures sont plus douces que leurs caresses) Two years of unequal happiness will follow, punctuated by Natalie's recurring infidelities and Renée's sickly jealousy, the letters of which oscillate between inflamed declarations and painful admissions of guilt. "Renée Vivien is the daughter of Sappho and Baudelaire, she is the 1900 flower of evil with fevers, broken-up fights, sad delights." (Jean Chalon, Portrait d'une séductrice)

In 1901, a major break-up occurred which lasted almost two years; Renée, despite requests from Natalie and the others she sent to win her back, resisted. "The two friends saw each other again, and in August 1905, went on a pilgrimage to Lesbos, which was a disappointment for Natalie Barney and was short-lived. [...] The spring was broken once and for all. The two former friends stopped seeing each other in 1907, and Vivien died without them seeing each other again." (J.-P. Goujon, ibid.)

Handwritten signed letter addressed to Natalie Clifford Barney and enriched with a poem entitled « Le Miroir »
Handwritten manuscript letter by Renée Vivien signed “Pauline” and written in black ink on a double leaf, headed 24 Hyde Park Street. This letter contains a handwritten alexandrine poem entitled “Le Miroir”; never published on the initiative of the poet, but it has been transcribed in “Renée Vivien et ses masques” (in à l'encart, April 1980):

Je t'admire et ne suis que ton miroir fidèle
Car je m'abîme en toi pour t'aimer un peu mieux;
Je rêve ta beauté, je me confonds en elle,
Et j'ai fait de mes yeux le miroir de tes yeux
Je t'adore, et mon cœur est le profond miroir
Où ton humeur d'avril se reflète sans cesse,
Tout entier, il s'éclaire à tes moments d'espoir
Et se meurt lentement à ta moindre tristesse
Ô toujours la plus douce ô blonde entre les blondes,
Je t'adore, et mon corps est l'amoureux miroir
Où tu verras tes seins et tes hanches profondes,
Ces seins pâles qui sont si lumineux le soir!
Penche-toi, tu verras ton miroir tour à tour
Pâlir ou te sourire avec tes mêmes lèvres
Où trembleront encore les mêmes mots d'amour,
Tu le verras frémir des mêmes longues fièvres
Contemple ton miroir de chair tendre et nacrée
Car il s'est fait très pur afin de recevoir
Le reflet immortel de la beauté sacrée
Penche-toi longuement sur l'amoureux miroir!

The rest of this long missive has, however, remained unpublished. A very beautiful letter sent from London by the Muse aux Violettes who misses her “little one”: “Despite its slowness time passes, you see, and brings the hour that I await feverishly, the time to meet again, Natalie! Two more sad evenings, and the third you will be there to rock me in your arms! [...] Today, I was still disproportionately bored... I so need to see you again that I count the hours as they pass... I only think of you, obsessed, haunted, taken, possessed by you and by our memories. I am a poor, unhappy thing far from you.” Weary of society life (“We had the queen's dressing room – how chic, my darling! Lady Augustus Fitz Clarence invited us. She descends from a bastard of the King and is therefore an illegitimate relative of the sovereign!”), Renée lingers on the contemplation of a present from her “darling”: “Your ring, I love it so much, it is a bond of our love that never leaves me... I so regretted your dagger, that at the last moment I forgot to carry. Your ring, you see, is your memory on my finger, I look at it and part of our tenderness is embodied in it.”


It is at the end of 1899 and through Violette Shillito that Renée Vivien – then Pauline Tarn – met Natalie Clifford Barney "this American woman softer than a scarf, whose sparkling face shines with golden hair, sea blue eyes, never-ending teeth" (Colette, Claudine à Paris). Natalie, who had just experienced a summer romance with the scandalous Liane de Pougy who introduced her to sapphism, paid little attention to this new acquaintance. Renée, on the other hand, was totally captivated by the young American woman and describes this love at first sight in her autobiographical novel, Une femme m'apparut: "I lived again the hour, already well past, when I saw her for the first time, felt the shiver that ran through me when my eyes met the mortal steel of her look, those eyes blue and piercing as a blade. I had a dim premonition that this woman would determine the pattern of my fate, and that her face was the predestined face of my Future. Near her I felt the luminous dizziness which comes at the edge of an abyss, or the attraction of a very deep water. She radiated the charm of danger, which drew me to her inexorably." "Winter 1899-1900. Beginnings of the idyll. One evening, Vivien is invited by her new friend to Mme Barney's studio [Natalie's mother], 153 avenue Victor-Hugo, on the corner of the rue de Longchamp. Natalie finds the courage to read the verses of her composition. As Vivien tells her to love these verses, she tells her that it is better to love the poet. A response worthy of the Amazon." (J.-P. Goujon, Tes blessures sont plus douces que leurs caresses) Two years of unequal happiness will follow, punctuated by Natalie's recurring infidelities and Renée's sickly jealousy, the letters of which oscillate between inflamed declarations and painful admissions of guilt. "Renée Vivien is the daughter of Sappho and Baudelaire, she is the 1900 flower of evil with fevers, broken-up fights, sad delights." (Jean Chalon, Portrait d'une séductrice)

In 1901, a major break-up occurred which lasted almost two years; Renée, despite requests from Natalie and the others she sent to win her back, resisted. "The two friends saw each other again, and in August 1905, went on a pilgrimage to Lesbos, which was a disappointment for Natalie Barney and was short-lived. [...] The spring was broken once and for all. The two former friends stopped seeing each other in 1907, and Vivien died without them seeing each other again." (J.-P. Goujon, ibid.)

Ice and fire: Set of two handwritten letters signed “Paule” and “Pauline” addressed to Natalie Clifford Barney: « Lorely – Undine – Viviane – reçois mon cœur entre tes mains étranges – et si douces ! » « Il m'est impossible de te revoir ! »Two handwritten letters signed «Paule» and «Pauline» addressed to Natalie Clifford Barney and written in black ink on a double leaf with a silver purple header and the address 3 rue Jean-Baptiste Dumas. On the letter signed «Pauline», the address at the top is crossed out with a line of ink. Transverse fold from having been sent.

Skillful romantic contrast from the virtuoso Renée Vivien, who, in turn Paule and Pauline, orchestrates her romantic relationships before her run away to Lesbos.

Several years after an extraordinary break-up, during which Natalie Clifford Barney tried to win back the Muse aux violettes, the latter finally fell back into her arms.

The first letter, signed “Paule” is very sensual:
“I have thought of you so deeply and with such softness since you left! And I see you again, in your dress shimmering with opals, magical and prestigious... Yesterday's spell has regained its eternal power over me... It is now three o'clock in the morning and I am not sleeping at all and I am thinking of you, intensely... and I bitterly consider that one evening when you were beside me, foolishly, a stupid fatigue went through me... While this night when I am alone, I cannot sleep.” We discover at the turn of a sentence that this missive, written in haste, is completely secret:
“Don't be surprised, beautiful, to receive any day an icy letter telling you that I am going to Holland with my friend and whoever. My friend has demanded that I write you this letter, she is very worried, very nervous, about you. Please don't be mad with me when you receive this letter, I had to write it to calm and reassure my friend. Once again, forgive me!”

The “friend” in question is none other that the baroness Hélène de Zuylen, with whom Renée maintained a stable relationship since her break-up with l'Amazone in 1901. The “Brioche”, as Natalie calls her, who tried by all means to save Renée from the torments of her heart, even asks her to write “an icy letter” to her rival. This false letter, in a very different tone from the first, seems to have been written directly under her dictation:
“After you left, I thought a lot about everything that had just happened, and I can only repeat to you what I have already told you: it is impossible for me to see you again, under any circumstances. The nervous disorder of which I am now suffering and of which only you are the cause, demands the utmost tranquility in the interest of my health, and I beg you to refrain, in the future, from any attempt at getting together, which, I warn you in advance, will be absolutely useless. You will see, from this letter, that I am in Holland, with my friend, as I told you. We go out together, among the calm landscapes, a charming rest. Farewell, Natalie, and remember that you were the sole cause of everything that happened. Pauline”

However, a third muse occupies all of Renée's thoughts: the young Ottoman Kérimé Turkhan-Pacha, with whom she has maintained an intense and regular correspondence for a year. Several days later, she left France with Natalie for Mytilene (Lesbos) and took the opportunity to escape and finally meet her Bosphorus sultana for the very first time.

A very beautiful testimony of Renée Vivien's ubiquity in love. Precious and very rare letters from Sappho 1900 to l'Amazone.


It is at the end of 1899 and through Violette Shillito that Renée Vivien – then Pauline Tarn – met Natalie Clifford Barney "this American woman softer than a scarf, whose sparkling face shines with golden hair, sea blue eyes, never-ending teeth" (Colette, Claudine à Paris). Natalie, who had just experienced a summer romance with the scandalous Liane de Pougy who introduced her to sapphism, paid little attention to this new acquaintance. Renée, on the other hand, was totally captivated by the young American woman and describes this love at first sight in her autobiographical novel, Une femme m'apparut: "I lived again the hour, already well past, when I saw her for the first time, felt the shiver that ran through me when my eyes met the mortal steel of her look, those eyes blue and piercing as a blade. I had a dim premonition that this woman would determine the pattern of my fate, and that her face was the predestined face of my Future. Near her I felt the luminous dizziness which comes at the edge of an abyss, or the attraction of a very deep water. She radiated the charm of danger, which drew me to her inexorably." "Winter 1899-1900. Beginnings of the idyll. One evening, Vivien is invited by her new friend to Mme Barney's studio [Natalie's mother], 153 avenue Victor-Hugo, on the corner of the rue de Longchamp. Natalie finds the courage to read the verses of her composition. As Vivien tells her to love these verses, she tells her that it is better to love the poet. A response worthy of the Amazon." (J.-P. Goujon, Tes blessures sont plus douces que leurs caresses) Two years of unequal happiness will follow, punctuated by Natalie's recurring infidelities and Renée's sickly jealousy, the letters of which oscillate between inflamed declarations and painful admissions of guilt. "Renée Vivien is the daughter of Sappho and Baudelaire, she is the 1900 flower of evil with fevers, broken-up fights, sad delights." (Jean Chalon, Portrait d'une séductrice)

In 1901, a major break-up occurred which lasted almost two years; Renée, despite requests from Natalie and the others she sent to win her back, resisted. "The two friends saw each other again, and in August 1905, went on a pilgrimage to Lesbos, which was a disappointment for Natalie Barney and was short-lived. [...] The spring was broken once and for all. The two former friends stopped seeing each other in 1907, and Vivien died without them seeing each other again." (J.-P. Goujon, ibid.)

Handwritten signed letter in English addressed to her younger sister: “Little Child, I never could possibly find the right words to tell you how deeply your dear little letter touched me”Handwritten letter signed by Renée Vivien addressed to her younger sister Antoinette Tarn, four pages written in black ink on a double leaf of headed paper from the Savoy Hotel in London.
Transverse folds from having been sent.

A very beautiful letter, full of joy, testifying to the intense relationship that Renée Vivien had with her little sister. “It would be profoundly inaccurate to believe that Renée Vivien, during her literary life (1900-199), had little contact with her family. [...] On the contrary, various documents prove that the relationships with her family – and with her sister primarily – were regular as well as affectionate.” (J.-P. Goujon, « Renée Vivien et ses masques » in à l'encart n°2 April 1980)

Our letter reveals the poet's great tenderness for her “little child” whom she showers with attention:
“I've sent you to-day some flowers and fruit which I hope will reach you safely. If not write so Solomon's and scold them soundly. I know you and Francis like fruit, – and how right you are! – but it's frightfully difficult to get any at the sea-side. So I've sent you some peaches, a bunch of black grapes and a bunch of white – also some oranges, as they are so refreshing.” La Muse aux violettes then dwells on the description of the bouquet que Toinette will receive “Then there are some flowers for you especially – some green pink roses – not the ordinary stupid pink but a sort of flashed golden... (I'm afraid this sounds like a second-rate artist, but it's so difficult to express oneself. I mean a mélange of pink and yellow) And some of the dear fragrant little lilies-of-the-valley you like.”), mixing English phrases and French vocabulary with humor:
“I'm talking you all this, my little Darling, en personne pratique, as if the things don't arrive all right, you can réclamer.”

Renée Vivien's correspondence is not usually marked with such joy, and it is in a new light that this letter reveals the optimistic and reassuring sister that she was:
“(last night was horrible by the way – crises d'estomac and nightmare combined) But to-day I'm blithe and merry and feel sur this night will be a good one, as good and bad almost invariably alternate. However, even the bad nights aren't quite so bad, as then I compose poetry or write little prose-poems or pièces of théâtre and thus turn insomnia to good account.”
However, at that time, the poet's health deteriorated considerably, alcohol and chloral hydrate abuse caused her chronic gastritis. In this painful and yet prolific moment, Renée thinks of her sister and, in this year 1909, – her last among the living – she asks Sansot, her publisher, to publish a booklet entitled
à ma sœur, printed on Japan paper with few copies and whose colophon explains: « Achevé d'imprimer le XVIII novembre MCMIX par E. Sansot éditeur [...] pour Pauline Tarn décédée ce même-jour » (“Printing completed on XVIII November MCMIX by E. Sansot publisher [...] for Pauline Tarn who died this same day”). This "heavy poem"and intimate testament speaks of the important place that Toinette occupied in Renée's life, who is the godmother of her son Paul, also mentioned in this letter:
"I so often think of you, and the lovely country, and little Paul [...]! Give the Darling a great kiss from his absent Aunt." The child was baptized Paul (a very rare name in England at the time) in honor of his aunt, and in 1911, Toinette gave birth to a daughter whom she names Renée in tribute to her late sister.

The tender letters from Sappho 1900 to her family, through periods of her suffering, are of great rarity.

Handwritten poem to Kérimé
« Pour elle seule » [« Eminé »] Handwritten poem entitled « Pour elle seule », dedicated and offered to Kérimé. Two pages written in purple ink on a leaf of lined and margined paper, in total 30 alexandrine verses.

The poem was published under the title « Eminé » in À l'heure des mains jointes (Alphonse Lemerre, 1906). This first manuscript version has several variations from the printed text. Some verses have even been totally abandoned: « Et lui dirai: Voici que les temps sont venus/Visage détaché sur le fond d'une trame; /Mais je dédaignerai les arbres aux troncs d'or/Et les fleurs de saphir pour un plus beau trésor. »

Le couchant répandra la neige des opales,
Et l'air sera chargé d'odeurs orientales
Les caïques furtifs jetteront leur éclair
De poissons argentins qui sillonnent la mer.
Ce sera le hasard qu'on aime et qu'on redoute.
A pas lents, mon destin marchera sur la route.
Je le reconnaîtrai parmi les inconnus
Et lui dirai: Voici que les temps sont venus.
Et mon destin aura la forme d'une femme,
Visage détaché sur le fond d'une trame;
Et mon destin aura de profonds cheveux bleus.
Ce sera le fantasque et le miraculeux.
Involontairement, comme lorsque l'on pleure
Je me répéterai: toute femme a son heure.
« Aucune ne sera pareille à celle-ci.
« Nul être n'attendra ce que j'attends ici. »
Celle qui brillera dans l'ombre solitaire
M'emmènera dans le domaine du mystère.
Près d'elle, j'entrerai, pâle comme Aladdin
Dans un prestigieux et terrible jardin.
Mon cher destin, avec des lenteurs attendries,
Détachera pour moi des fruits de pierreries.
Mais je dédaignerai les arbres aux troncs d'or
Et les fleurs de saphir pour un plus beau trésor.
Car je mépriserai le soleil et la lune
Et les astres fleuris, pour cette femme brune.
Ses yeux seront l'abîme où sombre l'univers
Et ses cheveux seront la nuit où je me perds.
à ses pieds nus, pleurant d'extases infinies,
Je laisserai tomber la lampe des génies.

Provenance: Kérimé Turkhan-Pacha.



The Sappho lover and her sofa muse

Considered as a literary work in its own right, Renée Vivien's correspondence with Kérimé Turkhan-Pacha is sprinkled with very rare poems that enhance the poet's romantic passion for her oriental muse.
In spring 1904, Vivien received an unexpected letter. A mysterious young Turkish woman, living in Constantinople and who signed Kérimé Turkhan-Pacha, enthusiastically told her about a book she had just read. [...] Intrigued and at the same time flattered, Vivien responded to the unknown woman [...] This letter was to be followed by more than a hundred others and dozens of postcards to Kérimé Turkhan-Pacha. [...] During the summer of 1905, when Vivien will make a pilgrimage to Lesbos with Natalie Barney, she will absolutely stop in Constantinople to get to know the fictional (as she imaged) Kérimé. She saw her again several times, always in Constantinople, and their correspondence continued until 1908. Born in 1876, Kérimé Turkhan-Pacha belonged to the Constantinople high society. Very cultured, raised French, she shone in the salons of the Ottoman capital. She was distinguished by her real beauty [...]. This seductive creature, whom Vivien had to imagine languishing on cushions in the shade of a Bosphorus harem, had married a Turk much older than her around 1900, Turkhan-Pacha. [...] Becoming a widow, Kérimé lived in Paris, where she had the opportunity to court Natalie Barney; she died in Athens in 1948. Worldly and very beautiful, [...] Kérimé belonged to the Turkish elite [..] whose women began to change their mentality. Just like Loti's Désenchantées [...] Kérimé found it troublesome to support the old customs of her country. «I was very young and I was cloistered away and aspired only to bite all the forbidden fruits», she told Le Dantec. [...] For Vivien, Kérimé represented the mirage of the East, which had already fascinated the entire 19th century: Chateaubriand, Delacroix, Nerval, Flaubert, Loti, Barrès... Turkish romanticism then permeated French literature. In 1898 Jean Lorrain had published La Dame turque (another pasha woman...) and in 1906 Loti would publish his famous novel Les Désenchantées." (J.-P. Goujon, Tes blessures sont plus douces que leurs caresses)

This superb elegy with its "Bosphorus sultana" takes up all the elements of this aesthetic mythology in a superb sapphic reappropriation of the languor and sensuality of the fantasized East.

Exceptionally rare, the manuscripts to the lovers of this icon of modern lesbianism are missing from most public collections, with the notable exception of the Jacques Doucet collection, which includes nine poems from Vivien to Natalie Clifford Barney.

Only these four manuscript poems to Kérimé are known to date.

Handwritten poem to Kérimé « Pour elle » [« Elle demeure en son palais... »]
Handwritten poem entitled « Pour elle », dedicated and offered to Kérimé. Half a page written in black ink on a leaf of headed paper from the Constantinople Péra-Palace & Summer-Palace, a total of 32 alexandrine verses.

The poem was published under the title « Elle demeure en son palais... » in Flambeaux éteints (Edward Sansot & C^ie, 1907). This first manuscript version has several variations from the printed text. Some verses have even been totally abandoned:
« Elle est indifférente, à l'égal d'une fleur / Dont la fureur ressemble aux cris du désespoir / Qu'ombragent les cyprès des morts d'Orient »


Elle habite un palais serein, près du Bosphore,
Où la lune s'étend comme en un lit nacré...
Sa bouche est interdite et son corps est sacré
Et nul amant, sauf moi, n'osa l'étreindre encore.
Des nègres cauteleux la servent, à genoux...
Ils sont humbles, avec des regards de menace,
Fugitifs à l'égal d'un éclair roux qui passe,
Leur sourire est très blanc: ils sont traîtres et doux.
[...]

J'entre le palais baigné par l'eau charmant...
Où l'ombre est fraîche, où le silence est infini,
Où, sur les tapis doux plus qu'un herbage uni,
Glisse légèrement le pas de mon amante.
Ma sultane aux yeux noirs m'attend, comme autrefois....

Des jasmins enlaceurs voilent les jalousies...
J'admire, en l'admirant, ses parures choisies,
Et mon âme s'accroche aux bagues de ses doigts.
Nos caresses ont de cruels enthousiasmes,
Dont la fureur ressemble aux cris du désespoir...
Plus tard, une douceur tombe, comme le soir,
Et ce sont des baisers de sœur, après les spasmes...
Elle redresse un pli de sa robe, en riant...
Et j'évoque son corps souple, dont je suis fière,
Auprès du mien, dans un inégal cimetière
Qu'ombragent les cyprès des morts d'Orient.

Provenance: Kérimé Turkhan-Pacha.



The Sappho lover and her sofa muse

Considered as a literary work in its own right, Renée Vivien's correspondence with Kérimé Turkhan-Pacha is sprinkled with very rare poems that enhance the poet's romantic passion for her oriental muse.
Exceptionally rare, the manuscripts to the lovers of this icon of modern lesbianism are missing from most public collections, with the notable exception of the Jacques Doucet collection, which includes nine poems from Vivien to Natalie Clifford Barney.

First edition for which there was no mention of large paper copies.
Spine slightly faded, internally good.

First edition, one of 25 numbered copies on vieux Japon, tirage de tête.
A little light spotting essentially ont the endpapers.

First edition for which there were no large paper copies.
Illustrated cover by Lévy-Dhurmer.
A small lack to foot of a joint, otherwise a good copy.

First edition, with no mention of large paper copies.
An important and very good autograph inscription from Renée Vivien to her friend Jeanne de Bellune : "Je donne à mon Jeannot bien aimé ce souvenir d'un passé déjà lointain lointain. Renée [I give this memory of a past already long, long gone to my beloved Jeannot]"
A very good and rare copy.