Djuna Barnes - Ladies Almanack

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LADIES ALMANACK

Judith Butler
Humanities Center
The Johns Hopkins
University

Blanche Wiesen Cook
History and Womens Studies
John Jay College and City University of New York Graduate Center

Diane Griffin Crowder
French and Womens Studies
Cornell College

Joanne Glasgow
English and Womens Studies
Bergen Community College

Jane Marcus
English and Womens Studies
City University of New York Graduate Center

Biddy Martin
German Studies and Womens Studies
Cornell University

Elizabeth Meese
English
University of Alabama

Terri de la Pea
Novelist/Short Story Writer

Ruthann Robson
Writer
Law School at Queens College
City University of New York

Ann Allen Shockley
Librarian
Fisk University

Elizabeth Wood
Lesbian and Gay Studies
Sarah Lawrence College

Bonnie Zimmerman
Womens Studies
San Diego State University

Ladies Almanack by Djuna Barnes
With an Introduction by Susan Sniader Lanser

Adventures of the Mind: The Memoirs of
Natalie Clifford Barney
Translated by John Spalding Gatton
With an Introduction by Karla Jay

Paint It Today by H.D. (Hilda Doolittle)
Edited and with an Introduction by Cassandra Laity

I Know My Own Heart: The Diaries of Anne Lister, 1791-1840
Edited by Helena Whitbread

(Sem)Erotics: Theorizing Lesbian: Writing
by Elizabeth Meese

The Search for a Woman-Centered Spirituality
by Annette Van Dyke

WRITTEN & ILLUSTRATED
BY A LADY OF FASHION

NEW YORK UNIVERSITY PRESS
New York and London

Preface copyright 1992 by Authors League Fund
All rights reserved
Foreword copyright 1992 by Karla Jay
Introduction copyright 1992 by Susan Sniader Lanser

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Barnes, Djuna.
Ladies almanack : showing their signs and their ties, their moons
and their changes, the seasons as it is with them, their eclipses
and equinoxes, as well as a full record of diurnal and nocturnal
distempers / written & illustrated by a lady of fashion.
p. cm.(The Cutting edge)
Originally published: 1928.
Includes bibliographical references.
ISBN 0-8147-1179-0 (alk. paper)ISBN 0-8147-1180-4
(pbk. : alk. paper)
I. Title. II. Series: Cutting edge (New York, N.Y.)
PS3505.A614L3 1992b 91-48152
818.5207dc20 CIP

New York University Press books are printed on acid-free paper,
and their binding materials are chosen for strength and durability.

Manufactured in the United States of America

c 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
P 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2

Despite the efforts of lesbian and feminist publishing houses and a few university presses, the bulk of the most important lesbian works has traditionally been available only from rare book dealers, in a few university libraries, or in gay and lesbian archives. This series intends, in the first place, to make representative examples of this neglected and insufficiently known literature available to a broader audience by reissuing selected classics and by putting into print for the first time lesbian novels, diaries, letters, and memoirs that have special interest and significance, but which have moldered in libraries and private collections for decades or even for centuries, known only to the few scholars who had the courage and financial wherewithal to track them down.

Their names have been known for a long timeSappho, the Amazons of North Africa, the Beguines, Aphra Behn, Queen Christina, Emily Dickinson, the Ladies of Llangollen, Radclyffe Hall, Natalie Clifford Barney, H. D.... and so many others from every nation, race, and era. But government and religious officials burned their writings, historians and literary scholars denied they were lesbians, powerful men kept their books out of print, and influential archivists locked up their ideas far from sympathetic eyes. Yet, some dedicated scholars and readers still knew who they were, made pilgrimages to the cities and villages where they had lived and to the graveyards where they rested. They passed around tattered volumes of letters, diaries, and biographies, in which they had underlined what seemed to be telltale hints of a secret or different kind of life. Where no hard facts existed, legends were invented. The few precious and often available pre-Stonewall lesbian classics, such as The Well of Loneliness by Radclyffe Hall, The Price of Salt by Claire Morgan [Patricia Highsmith], and Desert of the Heart by Jane Rule, were cherished. Lesbian pulp was devoured. One of the primary goals of this series is to give the more neglected works, which actually constitute the vast majority of lesbian writing, the attention they deserve.

A second but no less important aim of this series is to present the cutting edge of contemporary lesbian scholarship and theory across a wide range of disciplines. Practitioners of lesbian studies have not adopted a uniform approach to literary theory, history, sociology, or any other discipline, nor should they. This series intends to present an array of voices that truly reflect the diversity of the lesbian community. To help me in this task, I am lucky enough to be assisted by a distinguished editorial board that reflects various professional, class, racial, ethnic, and religious backgrounds as well as a spectrum of interests and sexual preferences.

At present lesbian studies occupies a small, precarious, and somewhat contested pied--terre between gay studies and womens studies. The former is still in its infancy, especially if one compares it to other disciplines that have been part of the core curriculum of every child and adolescent for several decades or even centuries. However, while one of the newest, gay studies may also be the fastest growing disciplineat least in North America. Lesbian, gay, and bisexual studies conferences are doubling or tripling their attendance. While only a handful of degreegranting programs currently exist, that number is also apt to multiply quickly in the next decade.