38. The Exhibitionist
Gouverneur Morris was a nymphomaniac who liked to get freaky. A bachelor until the age of 57, he liked the ladies, and by all accounts, the ladies liked him back. Many of the surviving accounts come from his own diary, which he filled with details about his escapades, referring to intimacy as “celebrating”. He was especially active while serving as a diplomat in France just before and after the French Revolution.
Morris’ main mistress at the time was a married noblewoman, who lived in the Louvre – now a museum, then a royal palace that housed some of the king’s favorites. Both he and his lover liked taking risks. In one diary entry he wrote about a tryst: “Go to the Louvre…we take the Chance of Interruption and celebrate in the Passage while [Mademoiselle] is at the Harpsichord in the Drawing Room. The husband is below. Visitors are hourly expected. The Doors are all open“.