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Apartment · Notre-Dame-des-Champs (6th) · 6e arrondissement

9 rue Saint-Romain

The buildingStill standing
Getting inOutside only
What's there nowA building

Private. A short, quiet street off the rue de Sèvres.

An address Djuna Barnes shared with Thelma Wood, documented by a surviving letter of 2 February 1928 that carries it as her correspondence address.

Address
9 rue Saint-Romain, 75006 Paris
Years
A Barnes address in the later 1920s; documented on a letter of 2 February 1928
IllustrationColour photorealistic view of 9 rue Saint-Romain beneath a bright blue sky

The same quiet rue Saint-Romain frontage in bright present-day colour.

Editorial illustration

The place, briefly

Djuna Barnes and Thelma Wood also lived on the rue Saint-Romain, a short street running off the rue de Sèvres in the 6th. The evidence here is unusually concrete for a Paris address: a Barnes letter dated 2 February 1928 carries it, and the letter survives in the James Joyce collection at the University at Buffalo.

1928 was the year Barnes published two books — Ryder, which briefly became a bestseller in America and was censored for its illustrations, and the privately printed Ladies Almanack. It was also close to the end of the relationship with Wood, which broke up in 1928 or shortly after.

The building is private and there is nothing to see but the street.

Key facts

Documented by
A Barnes letter dated 2 February 1928
Where the letter is
The James Joyce collection, University at Buffalo
Published that year
Ryder and Ladies Almanack
Access
Private — exterior only
The private exterior at 9 rue Saint-Romain, documented as Barnes's address in February 1928.Editorial illustration
The same quiet rue Saint-Romain frontage in bright present-day colour.Editorial illustration

Timeline

  1. 1928

    A Barnes letter of 2 February gives 9 rue Saint-Romain as her address.

  2. 1928

    Ryder and Ladies Almanack are published.

On the map

Questions before you go

How is this address documented?

By a surviving Barnes letter dated 2 February 1928, which carries the address and is held in the James Joyce collection at the University at Buffalo.

Writers who knew this place

Illustrated portrait of Djuna Barnes

Djuna Barnes

American · American writer and illustrator (1892–1982). She was a New York newspaper reporter for eight years before she was a novelist, spent the 1920s and 1930s in Paris, and wrote Nightwood, the 1936 novel T. S. Eliot took to Faber and introduced.

Lived here · 1928

A surviving Barnes letter dated 2 February 1928 carries the address 9 rue Saint-Romain, Paris. The letter is held in the James Joyce collection at the University at Buffalo.

— James Joyce Collection: Letters XI

Within walking distance

References

References

The sources below include histories, archival materials, scholarly research, and official records that informed this page. They document 9 rue Saint-Romain, the people connected to it, and its place in Paris.

  1. 1James Joyce Collection: Letters XI

    Archive
    University at Buffalo Libraries
    Used for

    Archival evidence used to document the historical record connected to 9 rue Saint-Romain.

    View source
  2. 2Barnes, Djuna (1892–1982)

    Website
    Encyclopedia.com
    Used for

    Web source consulted for documented facts and historical context presented on the 9 rue Saint-Romain page.

    View source
  1. 3About Djuna Barnes — Djuna Barnes in Special Collections

    Archive
    University of Maryland Libraries
    Used for

    Archival evidence used to document the historical record connected to 9 rue Saint-Romain.

    View source
  2. 4James Joyce

    Biography
    Richard Ellmann, 1959
    Used for

    Biographical evidence used to verify chronology, relationships, and historical context connected to 9 rue Saint-Romain.

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Why these sources are here

These references provide the documented foundation for this page's history and context. Claim-level citations remain attached to the specific claims they support.

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