Born: 11 June 1877, United Kingdom
Died: 18 November 1909
Country most active: France
Also known as: Pauline Mary Tarn
Renée Vivien was a British poet who wrote in French, in the style of the Symbolistes and the Parnassiens. A high-profile lesbian in the Paris of the Belle Époque, her work has received renewed attention following a revival of interest in Sapphic verse. Much of her work is autobiographical, reflecting a life of extreme hedonism. She published her first collection of poetry, Études et préludes, in 1901, and went on to publish 12 more collections of poetry in her lifetime, writing exclusively in French. She also translated Sappho’s verses from Greek, having learned the language specifically for the purpose. Contemporary feminists consider her one of the first women to write openly lesbian poetry. Vivien was very well travelled, especially for a woman of her era – she wintered in Egypt, visited China, and explored much of the Middle East, as well as Europe and America.
The following is excerpted from Infinite Women creator Allison Tyra’s book Uncredited: Women’s Overlooked, Misattributed, and Stolen Work.
In addition to learning Greek specifically so she could translate the work of Sappho, lesbian poet Renée Vivien published her first work as simply “R. Vivien.” (Renée was also a pseudonym, for the British-born Pauline Mary Tarn, who wrote only in French). But even those published as Renée seem to have confused the hetero-centric men of the late 1800s and early 1900s, who assumed the love poetry was written by a man to his mistress. Vivien and her partner Natalie Barney reputedly attended a lecture by one such confused gentleman, and had to stifle their laughter at the mistake, according to Barney’s account.