A Legacy Of Lesbian Love Letters (No 2) - DEAR SAPPHO

Djuna Barnes. An American playright, novelist and painter

From the book
DEAR SAPPHO
a legacy of lesbian 
love letters
by
KAY TURNER
Published by:  THAMES AND HUDSON, 1996


(No 2)


Aug 5th, after 1928


Djuna love - I wrote you a letter last week but had sense enough to read it over the next day - and not send it.  It was awful - I thought I was going to have a ''crisis'' but I was unwell and perhaps that was the trouble-
But at times Djuna things are get very terrible - something will happen I go to pieces - for instance I dream of you every night - and sometimes Djuna I dream we are lovers and I wake up the next day and nearly die of shame.  Taking advantage in my sleep of something I know so intimately - and something you do not wish me to have - It's like stealing from you and I feel the next day like cabling ''forgive me'' and sitting up all night.
You can understand dearest how I get upset - have patience with me - your letter about knowing what I ought to do torments me.  I say to myself ''Djuna is a clever woman - and she must know how I tear myself up over every word she writes'' - if there's something to do it's not what I've done or am - I'd cut my heart out and send it to you if you cared for it - I'd do anything in the world to please you a little - but what is it I can do?...
. . . I want you my Djuna- you know you have my life - in any way you want it - I'll be president of the United States if you want it - I adore you -
Simon


THELMA (SIMON) TO DJUNA
The American author Djuna Barnes, who wrote the deliciously deviant and legendary ''Nightwood'', among other books, lived on the Left Bank in Paris during the 1920's and '30's, then spent the rest of her life in New York.  In 1921 she met Thelma Wood, a striking, booted, six-foot-tall American woman who became, according to Barnes, ''my great love''.