Dolly Wilde
Encyclopedia
Anglo-Irish
Anglo-Irish was a term used primarily in the 19th and early 20th centuries to identify a privileged social class in Ireland, whose members were the descendants and successors of the Protestant Ascendancy, mostly belonging to the Church of Ireland, which was the established church of Ireland until...
socialite
Socialite
A socialite is a person who participates in social activities and spends a significant amount of time entertaining and being entertained at fashionable upper-class events....
, made famous by her family connections and her reputation as a witty conversationalist. Her charm and humor made her a popular guest at salons
Salon (gathering)
A salon is a gathering of people under the roof of an inspiring host, held partly to amuse one another and partly to refine taste and increase their knowledge of the participants through conversation. These gatherings often consciously followed Horace's definition of the aims of poetry, "either to...
in Paris
Paris
Paris is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...
between the wars, standing out even in a social circle known for its flamboyant talkers.
Wilde, born in London
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
three months after her uncle Oscar Wilde
Oscar Wilde
Oscar Fingal O'Flahertie Wills Wilde was an Irish writer and poet. After writing in different forms throughout the 1880s, he became one of London's most popular playwrights in the early 1890s...
's arrest for homosexual acts, was the only child of Oscar's older brother, Willie
Willie Wilde
William 'Willie' Charles Kingsbury Wilde was an Irish journalist and poet of the Victorian era and the older brother of Oscar Wilde.-Background:...
. Her father died just a few years later, and she was raised by her mother and her stepfather, the translator Alexander Teixeira de Mattos.
In 1914, she travelled to France in order to drive an ambulance in World War I
World War I
World War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...
. During the war she had an affair with one of her fellow ambulance drivers, Standard Oil
Standard Oil
Standard Oil was a predominant American integrated oil producing, transporting, refining, and marketing company. Established in 1870 as a corporation in Ohio, it was the largest oil refiner in the world and operated as a major company trust and was one of the world's first and largest multinational...
heiress Marion "Joe" Carstairs
Betty Carstairs
Betty Carstairs was a wealthy British power boat racer known for her speed and her eccentric lifestyle.-Biography:She was born in 1900 as Marion Barbara Carstairs in Mayfair, London, England, the daughter of Frances Evelyn Bostwick, second child of Jabez Bostwick and his wife Helen, and Captain...
, who in the 1920s became a speedboat racer and was known as "the fastest woman on water."Although she "revelled in" attracting both men and women, Wilde was primarily, if not entirely, lesbian
Lesbian
Lesbian is a term most widely used in the English language to describe sexual and romantic desire between females. The word may be used as a noun, to refer to women who identify themselves or who are characterized by others as having the primary attribute of female homosexuality, or as an...
.
Relationship with Natalie Barney
Her longest relationship, lasting from 1927 until her death, was with openly lesbian AmericanUnited States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
writer Natalie Clifford Barney
Natalie Clifford Barney
Natalie Clifford Barney was an American playwright, poet and novelist who lived as an expatriate in Paris....
, who was host of one of the best-known Paris
Paris
Paris is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...
ian literary salons of the 20th century.
Due in part to Jean Chalon's early biography of her, published in English as Portrait of a Seductress, Natalie Barney has become more widely known for her many relationships than for her writing or her salon. She once wrote out a list, divided into three categories: liaisons, demi-liaisons, and adventures.
Colette
Colette
Colette was the surname of the French novelist and performer Sidonie-Gabrielle Colette . She is best known for her novel Gigi, upon which Lerner and Loewe based the stage and film musical comedies of the same title.-Early life and marriage:Colette was born to retired military officer Jules-Joseph...
, the actress, was a demi-liaison, while the artist and furniture designer Eyre de Lanux
Eyre de Lanux
Eyre de Lanux, born Elizabeth Eyre, , was an American artist, writer, and art deco designer who created lacquered furniture and geometric patterned rugs in Paris during the 1920s...
, with whom she had an off-and-on affair for several years, was listed as an adventure. Among the liaisons—the relationships that Barney considered most important—were Olive Custance
Olive Custance
Olive Eleanor Custance was a British poet. She was part of the aesthetic movement of the 1890s, and a contributor to The Yellow Book....
, Renée Vivien
Renée Vivien
Renée Vivien, born Pauline Mary Tarn was a British poet who wrote in the French language. She took to heart all the mannerisms of Symbolism, as one of the last poets to claim allegiance to the school...
, Elisabeth de Gramont
Elisabeth de Gramont
Antoinette Corisande Élisabeth, Duchess of Clermont-Tonnerre was a French writer of the early 20th century, best known for her long-term lesbian relationship with Natalie Clifford Barney...
, Romaine Brooks
Romaine Brooks
Romaine Brooks, born Beatrice Romaine Goddard , was an American painter who worked mostly in Paris and Capri. She specialized in portraiture and used a subdued palette dominated by the color gray...
, and Dolly Wilde. Of these, the three longest relationships were with de Gramont, Brooks, and Wilde; from 1927, Barney was involved with all three women simultaneously, a situation that ended only with Wilde's death.
Writing
Dolly Wilde was regarded by many as a gifted storyteller and writer, but she never took advantage of these natural talents. She was supported mostly by the generosity of others and by a small inheritance from her stepfather; her only written works were translations—often uncredited and unpaid—and animated correspondence with her friends.Wilde drank to excess and was addicted to heroin. She went through several detoxification attempts, none successful; she emerged from one nursing-home stay with a new dependency on the sleeping draught paraldehyde
Paraldehyde
Paraldehyde is the cyclic trimer of acetaldehyde molecules. Formally, it is a derivative of 1,3,5-trioxane. The corresponding tetramer is metaldehyde. A colourless liquid, it is sparingly soluble in water and highly soluble in alcohol. Paraldehyde slowly oxidizes in air, turning brown and producing...
, then available over-the-counter.
In 1939 she was diagnosed with breast cancer and refused surgery, seeking alternative treatments. The following year, with the Germans
Germans
The Germans are a Germanic ethnic group native to Central Europe. The English term Germans has referred to the German-speaking population of the Holy Roman Empire since the Late Middle Ages....
approaching Paris
Paris
Paris is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...
, she fled for England
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
. She died aged 45 in 1941, of "causes unascertainable", according to the coroner
Coroner
A coroner is a government official who* Investigates human deaths* Determines cause of death* Issues death certificates* Maintains death records* Responds to deaths in mass disasters* Identifies unknown dead* Other functions depending on local laws...
's inquest -- possibly the cancer or possibly a drug overdose.