10 BARRY, James. Two contemporary manuscript accounts. 1865 “the most hardened creature i ever met”
Two contemporary manuscript accounts of the “strange but true story” of the distinguished army physician Dr James Barry, including reports by his acquaintances. Barry, the first British surgeon to perform a C-section in which both the mother and baby survived, was born Margaret Ann Bulkley, but his story was not publicly known until a month after his death in 1865. Dr James Barry ( c .1789–1865) studied medicine at the University of Edinburgh (1809–12) and went on to a career as a highly respected and skilled army surgeon, with postings in Canada, the Caribbean, Cape Town, Corfu, St Helena, and Malta. Though on many occasions suspected of being born a woman, Barry’s medical expertise and a group of distinguished benefactors and friends proved a powerful protection, and he ended his career as inspector general of military hospitals (a rank equivalent to that of major general). Upon Barry’s death in London on 25 July 1865, the layer-out noticed he bore the marks of having given birth to a child when very young. The story first broke publicly in Ireland on 14 August and five days later appeared in the London Morning Post under the title “A Strange Story”, quickly spreading abroad. Of the two present accounts, one is from the Scottish peer Thomas Fraser, 12th Lord Lovat (1802–1875) to Thomas Bamford Lang (1820–1868), the controller of the Edinburgh post office, while the other is anonymous. Fraser’s account opens with a report on Barry transcribed as “A Strange Story Abridgment from the Ladies Journal Aug 26”. He expresses surprise at the “curious story” and the fact that none of Barry’s “relations or friends” have disputed it and notes that “it is in some measure corroborated by the evidence of Officers who knew this individual and who are known to me”, followed by several anecdotes: “First, Major Gordon who knew Barry intimately describes his or her physical characteristics to be correctly described in the above account”. Barry met Major Gordon in Crimea after obtaining leave from his posting in Corfu to go to the front in October 1855. On Barry’s journey to Sevastopol he encountered Florence Nightingale, who later recalled: “I never had such a blackguard rating in all my life – I who have had more than any woman – than from this Barry sitting on his horse, while I was crossing the Hospital Square with only my cap on in the sun. He kept me standing in the midst of quite a crowd of soldiers, Commissariat, servants, camp followers, etc., etc., every one of whom behaved like a gentleman during the scolding I received while he behaved like a brute . . . After he was dead, I was told that (Barry) was a woman . . . I should say that (Barry) was the most hardened creature I ever met.” The other account, in a different hand, is an anonymous account of Barry’s career, opening with the same paraphrased report from 26 August 1865 as in Fraser’s account, followed by a quotation from a letter by Dr R. T. McCowan of Paisley which was published in the Whitehaven News on 7 September: “He lay at the point of death one time, and gave strict injunctions to my friend, Dr. O’Connor, who attended him, not to allow his body to be inspected or disturbed in the event of his decease, but to be buried immediately with his clothes on”. In Trinidad
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9 BARNEY, Natalie Clifford. The One Who Is Legion, or A.D.’s After-Life. London: Privately Subscribed by Eric Partridge Ltd, 1930 “for spirits, when they please, can either sex assume, or both” – paradise lost First edition, first impression, one of 525 trade copies, scarce in the jacket. This meditation on the essential androgyny of the soul is the second book in English and the only novel of the American expatriate “Amazon of Paris”, one of the most influential lesbian and feminist writers of the period and an inspiration for Radclyffe Hall’s The Well of Loneliness . The Paris salon of Natalie Clifford Barney (1876–1872) at 20 rue Jacob was for 60 years the crucible of Left Bank culture. Barney promoted women’s writing and formed an Académie des femmes in response to the all-male Académie française, while also supporting and inspiring male writers from Remy de Gourmont to Truman Capote. She had numerous female lovers, including the illustrator of this book; see item 129. Octavo. Original green buckram, spine lettered and ruled in gilt, top edge gilt. With dust jacket. Frontispiece and plate by Brooks. Spine ends gently bumped, a little cockling on front cover, endpapers toned, faint marks on title page, nick at head of pp. 117–28. A near-fine copy in a very good jacket indeed, toned and slightly rubbed, front panel soiled with creases at head, a few short closed tears and tiny chips at edges, not price-clipped. £2,000 [162083]
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in 1842 Barry briefly succumbed to a serious illness, most likely malaria. Dr O’Connor called in on Barry, and, ignoring Barry’s instructions, began examining the doctor, who was in a feverish sleep; Barry later swore him to silence. The anonymous account concludes with a further anecdote: “He used to say that when in the West Indies he was put into his Coffin, and a Black ‘Nurse’ was washing him, as he was to be buried the next day. In the night he jumped up, got out of the Coffin, and lived for 20 years at least afterwards”, confirmed by an annotation in a second hand: “I knew Dr Barry well, he has often told that Story – HB”.
Bifolium. 1) On letterhead with crest of the Fraser family (motto: “Je suis prest”). Written in a close hand in black ink. In fair condition, closed tear at top of fold. 2) Dated 26 August 1865; no place. Closely and neatly written in black ink. Folded twice, in good condition, long closed tear along fold. ¶ Michael du Preez & Jeremy Dronfield, Dr James Barry: A Woman Ahead of Her Time , 2016. We use the pronouns he/his for Barry, following the practice of both contemporary accounts and the identity under which Barry chose to conduct his career. £1,750 [136328]
All items are fully described and photographed at peterharrington.co.uk
LOUDER THAN WORDS
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