Book of Repulsive Women and Other Poems

Barnes Djuna

Djuna Barnes (1892-1982) once described herself as the most famous unknown writer, and although her novel, Nightwood is celebrated, her poetry has been a well-kept secret until now. This selection, the only one currently available, contains work written between 1914 and the 1970s. Many of the poems in "The Book of Repulsive Women" first appeared in pamphlets and literary journals in New York and Paris. Published together for the first time, they throw new light on Barnes' development as a writer. The book reveals her as a poet of unique power, at once compelling and disorientating. Marianne Moore observed, "reading Djuna Barnes is like reading a foreign language, which you understand".

"The Book of Repulsive Women" includes previously unpublished poems, and five illustrations by Barnes herself. Rebecca Loncraine provides an essential introduction to Barnes' poetry.

About the author

Djuna Chappell Barnes was born in Cornwall-on-Hudson in 1892, and she grew up in an eccentric, polygamous household. She was educated at home by her suffragist grandmother. She moved to New York in 1911, where she briefly studied at the Pratt Institute of Art, and where she made her living as a writer, penning feature articles, short stories, one-act dramas and poetry. Barnes was a talented artist and she illustrated her own work throughout her life. In the 1920s she moved to Paris, where she lived and worked amongst the literary expatriate community there until the late 1930s, when she moved back to New York. Barnes is most famous for her 1936 novel "Nightwood" but her three other major works, "Ryder" (1928), "Ladies Almanack" (1928) and "The Antiphon" (1958), are arguably equally important. In her latter years Barnes became reclusive, refusing public attention and attempts to republish her work. She died in 1982 at the age of ninety.