Djuna Barnes and Thelma Wood had a sometimes tortuous love affair. Djuna was a writer/journalist and Thelma was a painter. Djuna had many lovers before, during, and after her relationship with Thelma. She was wisecracking, brash, and "haughty," living her life with complete autonomy, answering to no one. She had been labeled "the greatest enigma of Paris literacy between the wars," and both sexes "found her irresistible." She is even credited for developing "participatory journalism," not afraid to do whatever it took to get the story. She was privileged to have mutual friendship and respect with writers such as T.S. Eliot and James "Jim" Joyce (a nickname only she was allowed to call him). Her journalistic career was highly successful because she was "consistently drawn to the extraordinary." 
(Weiss 142-173)

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