Collected Poems: With Notes Toward the Memoirs

This groundbreaking edition compiles many of the late unpublished works of American writer Djuna Barnes (1892?1982). Because she published only seven poems and a play during the last forty years of her life, scholars believed Barnes wrote almost nothing during this period. But at the time of her death her apartment was filled with multiple drafts of unpublished poetry and notes toward her memoirs, both included here for the first time. Best known for her tragic lesbian novel Nightwood, Barnes has always been considered a crucial modernist. Her later poetry will only enhance this reputation as it shows her remarkable evolution from a competent young writer to a deeply intellectual poet in the metaphysical tradition. With the full force of her biting wit and dramatic flair, Barnes’s autobiographical notes describe the expatriate scene in Paris during the 1920s, including her interactions with James Joyce and Gertrude Stein and her intimate recollections of T. S. Eliot. These memoirs provide a rare opportunity to experience the intense personality of this complex and fascinating poet.

Phillip Herring is professor emeritus of English at the University of Wisconsin?Madison and now lives in Austin, Texas. He is the author of the biography Djuna: The Life and Work of Djuna Barnes. Osías Stutman, poet, immunologist, and professor emeritus at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center, has published a Spanish translation of Barnes’s poetry, which was on the bestseller list in Spain, where he now lives. His poems have been published in a variety of books and magazines.