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Carman Barnes papers

 Collection
Identifier: D.155

Biographical/Historical note

Carman Barnes was born in Chattanooga, Tennessee on November 20, 1912. Her father was James Hunter Neal. Her mother, Lois Diantha Mills, was well known throughout the South as a lyric poet and writer of mountain folklore under the names Diantha Mills and later, Diantha Barnes. Carman Barnes took her name from her first step-father, Wellington Barnes, founder and treasurer of Chattanooga's Dixie-Portland Cement Company, who died in 1927. Her second stepfather, George Pullen Jackson, (1874-1953), was a musicologist, folklorist and educator best known as an authority on Negro and white spirituals.

Carman Barnes was educated at the Girls' Preparatory School in Chattanooga and the Ward-Belmont School for Girls in Nashville. She published her first novel, Schoolgirl, when she was sixteen; it became an international best seller. Working with Alfonso Washington Pezet, she dramatized the story and it opened for a short run at the Ritz Theatre on Broadway on her eighteenth birthday. Paramount Pictures bought the rights for $30,000, but it was never made into a film. Barnes would publish four more novels in the next four years. In 1930-31, Barnes' celebrity resulted in writing and acting contracts with Paramount-Publix Pictures Corporation and she went to Hollywood. In later years, she would tell interviewers that she was never given any writing work to do and that while she was photographed "700 times in the first week," she was never given the opportunity to act in a film.

Throughout the late 1930s and the 1940s, Barnes explored a range of esoteric pursuits with varying degrees of seriousness. She made a number of attempts to establish "schools", or "Groups", to share her learning and interests. The most successful of these ventures were a series of lectures by Claude F. Bragdon and P.D. Ouspensky, respectively. In 1940, Barnes met the architect, theatre designer and writer Claude F. Bragdon and went on to sponsor a series of 19 of his lectures on a variety of topics primarily related to art and mathematics. Later published as The Arch Lectures, these talks were organized and hosted by Barnes and attended by members of their respective circles and other invitees. In 1941 Barnes began to study with the Russian philosopher and mathematical physicist Petr Demianovich Ouspensky both privately and via a "Group". Correspondence and materials strictly related to the Bragdon and Ouspensky lectures, as well as Barnes' "Girls' Group" may be found in Box 9; both the Bragdon and Ouspensky correspondence files contain references to their lecture series as well.

In 1945, Barnes married Hamilton Fish Armstrong, writer on international politics and editor of Foreign Affairs. Together they wrote A Passionate Victorian, a play about the English actress Fanny Kemble. It was never produced. Following more than ten years of publishers' rejections of various works, Barnes' novel Time Lay Asleep was published in 1946. Barnes and Armstrong separated after a few years and formally divorced in 1951. In that year, Barnes travelled to Europe, settling in Austria. She suffered the first of several breakdowns in the summer of 1952 and was treated with insulin shock therapy and psychotherapy, among other methods. Barnes would never return to the United States. She died in Salzburg, Austria on August 19, 1980.

Carman Barnes' novels

  1. Schoolgirl (1929) is an adolescent girl's realistic account of boarding school life, with an emphasis on extracurricular activities.
  2. Beau Lover (1930) is the tale of a young woman who must choose between her ideals and a range of suitors.
  3. Mother, Be Careful! (1932) is a satire of Hollywood.
  4. Young Woman (1934) is the story of a young girl from the South who goes to New York during the Depression years.
  5. Time Lay Asleep (1946) features a large Southern family in the late nineteenth and early twentieth century.

Scope and Contents note

The collection consists of Barnes' correspondence [Boxes 1-7] to/from a wide assortment of friends, colleagues and family members; notes and ephemera relating to her interest in the esoteric, primarily from the 1940s [Box 8]; notes, seating arrangements, invitation lists and correspondence relating to Barnes' organization of lectures by Claude Bragdon and P.D. Ouspensky [Box 9]; address books and social records from the mid to late 1940s during her marriage to Hamilton Fish Armstrong [Box 10]; biographical information, photographs, and financial documents [Box 11]; and research for, and drafts of, a majority of her writing [Boxes 12-16].

The correspondence files retain Carman Barnes' own organization system: they are organized alphabetically and then chronologically within each name folder. Among the correspondents are: Claude F. Bragdon, Leopold Stokowski, Mabel Dodge Luhan, P.D. Ouspensky, Theodore Dreiser and Vincent Bendix. The correspondence between Barnes and her lifelong friends Clara Martin and Mary St. John present the fullest picture of Barnes' personal life. Correspondence strictly related to invitations to Bragdon and/or Ouspensky lectures are filed in Box 9.

Boxes 17 and 18 contain the papers of Barnes' mother, Lois Diantha Mills Barnes, 1889-1939, who was well known in the South as a lyric poet. She was discovered by Frank L. Stanton and Wighton F. Melton, each of whom would serve as poet laureate of Georgia. The Gorham Press (Boston) published a volume of her verse, Poems, in 1925. She was president of the Chattanooga Writers Club, a member of the Tennessee Poetry Society and Vanderbilt University Woman's Club. In addition to poetry, she also wrote a number of (unpublished) short stories. Box 17 contains correspondence, most notably with the poet Wightman F. Melton (17:8), and early musical work, some of which was done in collaboration with Nathan Kroll. Box 18 contains assorted drafts of Diantha Barnes' poetry and prose writing. This material appears to span several decades and to contain multiple drafts of individual works. Due to the volume of material, its arrangement has not been altered since its acquisition.

Creator

Dates

  • Creation: 1830-1980

Related Archival Materials note

Title
Carman Barnes papers
Status
Completed
Author
Finding aid prepared by Rare Books and Special Collections staff
Date
undated
Description rules
Describing Archives: A Content Standard
Language of description
English
Script of description
Latin
Language of description note
Description is written in: English, Latin script.

Revision Statements

  • October 2023: Finding aid was updated to incorporate the indexed correspondence previously listed in the Carman Barnes Database.

Library Details

Part of the Rare Books, Special Collections, and Preservation Library

Contact:
Rochester NY 14627-0055 USA