Djuna Barnes (1892-1982) was a major literary figure in Paris of the 1920s and 1930s, who retired into reclusiveness and produced only a small body of work.

A major figure on the Paris literary scene of the 1920s and 1930s, Djuna Barnes was best known for her experimental novel Nightwood, one of the most influential works of modernist fiction. Described by Elizabeth Hardwick of the Times Literary Supplement as "a writer of wild and original gifts," Barnes was acclaimed by such writers as "Graham Greene, Samuel Beckett, Janet Flanner, Laurence Durrell, Kenneth Burke, Sir Herbert Read, and Dylan Thomas," Andrew Field pointed out in the New York Times Book Review. Field noted, too, that "a list just as long could be made of important writers who borrowed heavily from her." Barnes was at various times a poet, journalist, playwright, theatrical columnist, and novelist. But her prolific career was...