DID MERCEDES DeACOSTA KEEP ISADORA DUNCAN LATER IN HER LIFE?

ROBERT SCHANKE - Mercedes DeAcosta book

Mercedes DeAcosta came from a respectable Catholic Cuban family that immigrated to the United States, and became an expatriate in Paris who was well known for her lesbian seductions. This book details her self realization that she was different and her acceptance of that fact with much turmoil which she got over: she had Greta Garbo and Eva Le Gallienne, both famous actresses, as lovers, and is said to have made the rounds of women.  Her older heterosexual sister, Rita, who became renown for her fashion design and sense, went to Paris first.  They both moved in artistic and literary circles starting in the 1900's. 

When Rita learned that her husband was having an affair with a woman who didn't dress well, she said "I can't have you going around with a creature who looks like that" and sent the woman off to Callot Soeurs for new fashions. (page 33)

In Paris, Rita and Mercedes met the sculptor Rodin.

Isadora Duncan had met him a few years earlier. 

She reported "Finally he took a small quantity of clay and pressed it between his palms.  He breathed hard as he did so.  The heat streamed from him like a radiant furnace.  In a few moments he had formed a woman's breast, that palpitated beneath his fingers."  Then he turned to Duncan.  "He gazed at me with lowered lids, his eyes blazing, and then with the same expression that he had before his works, he came towards me.  He ran his hands over my neck, breast, stroked my arms and ran his hands over my hips, my bare legs and feet.  He began to kneed my whole body as if it wet clay, while from him emanated heat that scorched and melted me."  (pages 24-25)

In June 1926, Mercedes went again to Paris.  Word was out that Isadora was in a hotel on the Left Bank, destitute and deserted by her friends, possibly starving.  "Almost immediately, Mercedes hailed a taxi and sped off to find her.  To Mercedes' delight, Duncan greeted her at the door with "Archangel!  I think you are an archangel. How did you find me?"  (page 79)

In no time at all, an intimate romance resumed between them. Duncan penned a poem to Mercedes that overflowed with sexual images. (The poem is in the book, as is another message from Isadora in which she has just now known love for the first time.)  Duncan wrote later that "I believe the highest love is purely spiritual flame which is not necessarily dependent on sex."  (page 80)

This statement has been interpreted, I believe incorrectly.  I think Isadora didn't mean sex, but gender.

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NATALIE CLIFFORD BARNEY and COURTESAN LIANE DE POUGY

Much of my  knowledge about this coupling comes from reading around the Internet.  Some of the text I read was referenced and some was not.  Consider this post to be a paraphrase!

*****

It is said that in about 1899, after seeking Liane in a Paris dance hall, Natalie showed up where Liane was then living, wearing a royal page costume. She said she had been sent by Sappho, a famous ancient Greek lesbian who also wrote poetry.  Liane was bisexual and accepted Natalie as a lover and patron, and though it was a brief affair, she eventually wrote a memoir about it called "Idylle Saphique."

HERE IS WHAT GOOGLE BOOKS HAS TO SAY ABOUT THE BOOK: "In spring 1899, Liane Pougy, friend of the writer Jean Lorrain and sworn enemy of Caroline Otero, meeting an American twenty-three, Natalie Clifford Barney. C'est aussitôt le coup de foudre. It was immediately hooked. Pendant l'été qui suit, les deux femmes vont vivre une véritable passion. During the summer following, the two women will experience a true passion. C'est cette passion que Liane écrit au fur et à mesure qu'elle la vit. It is this passion that Liane written as she saw her. Idylle Saphique, paru en 1901, est un brillant témoignage de cette époque " fin de siècle ", tellement décadente et tellement tumultueuse, où le plaisir et son assouvissement règnent en maître à Paris. Sapphic romance, published in 1901, is a shining symbol of that era "fin de siècle", so decadent and so tumultuous, where pleasure and satisfaction reign supreme in Paris."

GOOGLE BOOKS/TRANSLATE Idylle Saphique by Liane De Pougy

According to Wikipedia, this book became the talk of Paris and was reprinted at least 69 times in its first year.

SUITE 101 PAGE ON LIANE DE POUGY - Quoting Souhami, Diana. Wild Girls: Natalie Barney and Romaine Brooks. Weidenfeld & Nicolson. London 2004

"She became quite wealthy. According to The New York Times, Liane ‘acquired a handsome house with magnificent furniture’ in Paris. She also owned houses in Brittany and St.Germain. ... She fell very much in love with the notorious lesbian, Natalie Barney, who was an American heiress. When Natalie’s father found out about the affair he threatened to disinherit her and ordered her to return to America. She refused. However Natalie was eventually unfaithful to her so the affair ended badly..."