Poet, Memoirist and Epigrammatist. Her father, Albert Clifford Barney, inherited a railroad fortune, which allowed Natalie to move in the highest social and diplomatic circles. High society and its rigid protocal bored her so she was eager to pursue her own adventures. As a child, she had visited Europe many times, and when she was twenty-four she settled permanently in Paris. Her life and literary salon that she held fifty years in Paris was the epicenter of lesbian genius and talent in the first half of the last century and included Radclyffe Hall, Gertrude Stein, Djuna Barnes, Lady Troubridge, Alice B. Toklas, as well as some gay male literary figures as Jean Cocteau, Truman Capote, Gore Vidal and Andre Gidé. She was called "The Amazon of letters." She had affairs with many different women but the true loves of her life was the American poet Renee Vivien and especially the American painter, portraitist and artist Romaine Brooks. The two were together in a primary relationship that lasted over 50 years. Natalie Barney died at the age of ninety-five in the same house at 20 rue Jacob where she had lived and run her salon for more than fifty years. (bio by: findagrave)