Who is Natalie Barney as noted in the book, After Sappho?

The American writer Natalie Barney—who spends much of her life in Paris—serves an important role in After Sappho. As a young girl, Natalie “did what she liked, namely writing poems and meeting girls” (55). During her adulthood in Paris, Natalie hosts a literary salon at 20 rue Jacob, her home in Paris. The collective narrator describes Natalie’s backyard (which includes a temple) as a “haven of fragments, a garden where sunlight could set the leaves quivering” (59). The salon becomes an important hub for the community of lesbians and feminists living in Paris during this time. Natalie maintains passionate romantic relationships with several women, including Romaine Brooks, Eva Palmer, and Renée Vivien, who dies in 1909. Prior to the start of the First World War, Natalie forms the Girls of the Future Society, an organization that seeks to actualize a more progressive, inclusive future.