Mercedes de Acosta

She was born in New York City on March 1, 1892. Her father, Ricardo de Acosta, was born in Cuba to Spanish parents, and later immigrated to the United States. Her mother, Micaela Hernández de Alba y de Alba, was Spanish and allegedly a descendant of the Spanish Dukes of Alba. De Acosta had five siblings: Aida, Ricardo Jr., Angela, Maria, and Rita. Maria married the socially prominent landscape architect A. Robeson Sargent, son of Harvard botanist Charles Sprague Sargent. Rita became a famous beauty known as Rita Lydig. De Acosta attended elementary school at the Convent of the Blessed Sacrament on West 79th Street in Manhattan to learn "feminine ways," where Dorothy Parker was a classmate. While there, she met two lesbian nuns, and took on the task to deliver notes between them, and even stood guard in the corridors for them. They divorced in 1935. She was described in 1955 by Garbo biographer, John Bainbridge, as "a woman of courtly manners, impeccable decorative taste and great personal elegance... a woman with a passionate and intense devotion to the art of living... and endowed with a high spirit, energy, eclectic curiosity and a varied interest in the arts." ==Personal life==

, after 1919 De Acosta was involved in numerous lesbian relationships with Broadway's and Hollywood's elite, and she did not attempt to hide her sexuality; her uncloseted existence was rare and daring in her generation. De Acosta is often associated with The Sewing Circle, an informal network of lesbian and bisexual female writers and actresses, who socialized and supported each other; most participants were closeted, unlike de Acosta. In 1916, she began an affair with actress Alla Nazimova, and later with dancer Isadora Duncan. Shortly after marrying Abram Poole in 1920, de Acosta became involved in a five-year relationship with actress Eva Le Gallienne. De Acosta wrote two plays for Le Gallienne, Sandro Botticelli and Jehanne de Arc. After the financial failures of both plays they ended their relationship. Over the next decade, she was involved with several famous actresses and dancers, including Greta Garbo, Marlene Dietrich, Ona Munson, and Russian ballerina Tamara Platonovna Karsavina. Additional unsubstantiated rumors include affairs with Tallulah Bankhead, Pola Negri, Eleonora Duse, Katherine Cornell, and Alice B. Toklas. An annoyed Bankhead regularly dubbed de Acosta as "Countess Dracula" following their alleged affair, due to her appearance and fashion as she was "notorious for walking the streets of New York in mannish pants, pointed shoes trimmed with buckles, tricorn hat, and cape" and a "chalk white face, deep-set eyes, thin red lips, and jet black hair." Interest in eastern spirituality In the early 1930s de Acosta developed an interest in Hinduism and was encouraged to seek out Indian mystic Meher Baba when he arrived in Hollywood. For several years she was captivated by his philosophy and methods and he often gave her advice about ways to address her problems. Later, she studied the philosophy of Hindu sage Ramana Maharshi who introduced her to yoga, meditation, and other spiritual practices she hoped would help ease her suffering. In 1938, she met Hindu dancer Ram Gopal in Hollywood. They immediately established a rapport and became close lifelong friends. Later that year, they traveled to India to meet Maharshi. When asked about religion, de Acosta once said that although she had grown up Catholic, she would be, if she had to be anything, a Buddhist. ==Later life, controversial autobiography and death==

In 1960, when de Acosta was seriously ill with a brain tumor and in need of money, she published her memoir, Here Lies the Heart. The book was well-received by critics, and many of de Acosta's close friends praised it. However, its implied homosexuality resulted in the severance of several friendships with women who felt she had betrayed them. Garbo ended their friendship at this time. Eva Le Gallienne in particular was furious, denouncing de Acosta as a liar and stating that she invented the stories for fame. Regardless, many of her affairs and relationships with women, including that with Le Gallienne, are confirmed in personal correspondence. An exception was Marlene Dietrich, who continued to correspond with her and loved the book. According to critic Patricia White, "If she craved being seen, MdA was more careful about what she said than she is given credit for. She wrote a name-dropping memoir, but for something attacked for exaggeration, it barely alludes to homosexuality." In any case, she gained a reputation that was not appreciated by everyone. But as Alice B. Toklas, lover of Gertrude Stein and de Acosta's long-term friend, wrote to a disapproving critic, "Say what you will about Mercedes, she's had the most important women of the twentieth century." De Acosta died at age 76 in poverty in New York City. She is buried at Trinity Cemetery in Washington Heights, New York City. ==Legacy==

De Acosta has usually been described disparagingly, dismissed as a "notorious lesbian" who was a dishonest nuisance to her lovers and who consistently "stalked" Garbo. Garbo's biographers, for example, assess their relationship from Garbo's perspective in which Garbo is fundamentally blameless in their difficult relationship, a perpetual victim of de Acosta's alleged irksome behavior. But Robert A. Schanke, de Acosta's recent biographer, attempts, on the basis of extensive research, to provide an accurate picture of her. She was, Schanke acknowledges, flawed and imperfect, a complex woman who impaired several of her relationships and failed to achieve her professional and romantic aspirations. But he reveals her to have been an exceptionally lively, intelligent, and dynamic person who had many devoted friends. She was, he argues, a brave lesbian of her times and a person of integrity who remained kind and loyal to most everyone with whom she crossed paths. He suggests that the many denigrating portrayals of her may derive from the deep homophobia of her generation. She has been accused of fabricating incidents in her memoir and lacing it with half-truths and fantasies. She herself confessed, "I may have made mistakes in some dates or minor incidents but…I feel I have held to the spirit of my statement if not to the letter." Nevertheless, Karen Swenson, a Garbo biographer, and Schanke identified and corrected significant errors in de Acosta's account. While the memoir was initially unsuccessful, it was rediscovered in the late 1960s and widely read in the underground gay community. In spite of its inaccuracies, it is now recognized as an important contribution to gay and lesbian history. Her poetic work consists mainly of three books published during her life: Moods (prose poems) (1919), Archways of Life (1921), and Streets and Shadows (1922). A comprehensive compilation of these three books appeared, for the first time, in Spanish translation under the title Imposeída (46 poemas) (Las Cruces, NM: Eds. La Mirada, 2016, ), edited by Jesús J. Barquet and Carlota Caulfield. Barquet and Caulfield wrote the introduction to the book ("Mercedes de Acosta en traje de poeta") and, along with Joaquín Badajoz, authored the Spanish translations. In 2017, Imposeida was republished by Ediciones Holguin (), in Cuba; and in 2018 an expanded and revised version appeared in bilingual (English/Spanish) format in Ediciones Torremozas (), in Madrid. Composer Joseph Hallman memorialized de Acosta in the song cycle "Raving Beauty" for flute, harp, cello, and soprano. The song cycle was based on the correspondence and ephemera held in the de Acosta collection at the Rosenbach Museum. The work deals with her relationships and correspondences with Greta Garbo, Marlene Dietrich, Isadora Duncan, Igor Stravinsky, and others. Commissioned by the Philadelphia International Festival for the Arts, it has been performed many times, including by the Secret Opera. ==See also==

• • de Acosta, Mercedes (2016). Imposeída (46 poemas). Eds. Jesus J. Barquet and Carlota Caulfield. Las Cruces, NM: Eds. La Mirada. . • de Acosta, Mercedes (2018). Imposeída. Bilingual edition. Eds. Jesus J. Barquet and Carlota Caulfield. Madrid, Ediciones Torremozas . • • • • • • • ==External links==