Gertrude Stein
Gertrude Stein, photographed by Carl Van Vechten, 1935
Born	February 3, 1874(1874-02-03) Allegheny, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, U.S.
Died	July 27, 1946 (aged 72) Paris, France
Occupation	writer, poet
Nationality	American
Literary movement	Modernist literature
Influences	Leo Stein, William James, Pablo Picasso, Alice B. Toklas
Influenced	Hemingway, Ashbery, Palmer, Paul Bowles, Language poets

Gertrude Stein (February 3, 1874 – July 27, 1946) was an American writer who became a catalyst in the development of modern art and literature. She spent most of her life in France. Her life was marked by two primary relationships, the first with her brother Leo Stein from 1874-1914, and the second with Alice B. Toklas from 1907 until Stein's death in 1946. Stein shared her salon at 27 rue de Fleurus, Paris, first with Leo and then with Alice. Throughout her lifetime, Stein cultivated significant tertiary relationships with ultimately famous members of the avantgarde artistic and literary world of her time. Download high resolution version (1500x1875, 836 KB) Wikipedia does not have an article with this exact name. ... Carl Van Vechten (June 17, 1880 – December 21, 1964) was an American writer and photographer who was a patron of the Harlem Renaissance and the literary executor of Gertrude Stein. ... is the 34th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar. ... Year 1874 (MDCCCLXXIV) was a common year starting on Thursday (link with display the full calendar) of the Gregorian calendar (or a common year starting on Saturday of the 12-day slower Julian calendar). ... Image File history File links This is a lossless scalable vector image. ... Allegheny was a city in western Pennsylvania, located on the north shore of the junction of the Allegheny and Ohio Rivers, across from Pittsburgh. ... Motto: (Out Of Many, One) (traditional) In God We Trust (1956 to date) Anthem: The Star-Spangled Banner Capital Washington D.C. Largest city New York City None at federal level (English de facto) Government Federal constitutional republic  - President George Walker Bush (R)  - Vice President Dick Cheney (R) Independence from... is the 208th day of the year (209th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... Year 1946 (MCMXLVI) was a common year starting on Tuesday (link will display full 1946 calendar) of the Gregorian calendar. ... Image File history File links This is a lossless scalable vector image. ... This article is about the capital of France. ... This article is about work. ... A writer is anyone who creates a written work, although the word more usually designates those who write creatively or professionally, or those who have written in many different forms. ... The poor poet A poet is a person who writes poetry. ... In English usage, nationality is the legal relationship between a person and a country. ... ... Modernist literature is the literary form of Modernism and especially High modernism; it should not be confused with modern literature, which is the history of the modern novel and modern poetry as one. ... Leo Stein (born ??-?? 1872 in Allegheny, Pennsylvania; died July 29, 1947 in Florence, Italy) was an American art collector and critic. ... This article needs additional references or sources for verification. ... “Picasso” redirects here. ... Alice B. Toklas, photographed by Carl Van Vechten, 1949 Alice B. Toklas (April 30, 1877 – March 7, 1967) was the lover and confidante of writer Gertrude Stein. ... Ernest Miller Hemingway (July 21, 1899 – July 2, 1961) was an American novelist, short-story writer, and journalist. ... John Ashbery John Ashbery (born July 28, 1927) is an American poet. ... Michael Palmer (b. ... Paul Frederic Bowles (December 30, 1910 - November 18, 1999), was an American composer, author, and traveler. ... The Language poets (or L=A=N=G=U=A=G=E poets, after the magazine that bears that name) are an avant garde group or tendency in United States poetry that emerged in the late 1960s and early 1970s; its central figures are all actively writing, teaching, and performing... is the 34th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar. ... Year 1874 (MDCCCLXXIV) was a common year starting on Thursday (link with display the full calendar) of the Gregorian calendar (or a common year starting on Saturday of the 12-day slower Julian calendar). ... is the 208th day of the year (209th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... Year 1946 (MCMXLVI) was a common year starting on Tuesday (link will display full 1946 calendar) of the Gregorian calendar. ... A writer is anyone who creates a written work, although the word more usually designates those who write creatively or professionally, or those who have written in many different forms. ... Dejeuner sur lHerbe by Pablo Picasso At the Moulin Rouge: Two Women Waltzing by Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec, 1892 The Scream by Edvard Munch, 1893 I and the Village by Marc Chagall, 1911 Fountain by Marcel Duchamp, 1917 Campbells Soup Cans 1962 Synthetic polymer paint on thirty-two... Modernist literature is the literary form of Modernism and especially High modernism; it should not be confused with modern literature, which is the history of the modern novel and modern poetry as one. ... Leo Stein (born ??-?? 1872 in Allegheny, Pennsylvania; died July 29, 1947 in Florence, Italy) was an American art collector and critic. ... Alice B. Toklas, photographed by Carl Van Vechten, 1949 Alice B. Toklas (April 30, 1877 – March 7, 1967) was the lover and confidante of writer Gertrude Stein. ...

Biography

During most of her life, Gertrude lived on the investment income her brother Michael very capably stewarded and invested, after their parents died, leaving Michael and four younger siblings, Gertrude the youngest and in her teens. After the success of her memoir The Autobiography of Alice B. Toklas in the mid 1930s, Stein became rich in her own right. [1]

Early life

Gertrude Stein was born in Allegheny, Pennsylvania[2], near Pittsburgh, the youngest of a family of five children, to well-educated German-Jewish immigrants. Her father, Daniel Stein, was an executive with a railroad, whose prudent investments in streetcar lines and real estate had made the family wealthy. When she was three, the Steins moved for business reasons first to Vienna and then to Paris. She returned to America with her family in 1878, settling in Oakland, California. They would continue to visit Europe periodically on vacation. Allegheny was a city in western Pennsylvania, located on the north shore of the junction of the Allegheny and Ohio Rivers, across from Pittsburgh. ... City nickname: The Steel City Location in the state of Pennsylvania Founded 1758 Mayor Tom Murphy (Dem) Area  - Total  - Water 151. ... ... For other uses, see Vienna (disambiguation). ... This article is about the capital of France. ... “Oakland” redirects here. ...

In 1888, Amelia Stein (Gertrude's mother) died, and in 1891 Daniel Stein (Gertrude's father) died. Michael Stein (her eldest brother) took over the family business holdings, made wise business decisions and arranged the affairs of his siblings. Michael arranged for Gertrude, and her sister Bertha, to live with their mother's family in Baltimore after the deaths of their parents. (Mellow, 1974, pp. 25-28). It was in Baltimore that Gertrude met Claribel Cone and Etta Cone who modeled the Saturday evening salon which Gertrude would later host in her own right, who shared an appreciation for art and conversation about it, and who modeled a domestic division of labor that Gertrude was later to emulate in her relationship with Alice B. Toklas. (Ibid. pp. 41-42). Claribel Cone (1864-1929), and her sister Etta Cone (1870-1949) were art collectors who amassed one of the most important art collections in the world, the Cone Collection, now housed in the Baltimore Museum of Art. ... Alice B. Toklas, photographed by Carl Van Vechten, 1949 Alice B. Toklas (April 30, 1877 – March 7, 1967) was the lover and confidante of writer Gertrude Stein. ...

Gertrude attended Radcliffe College from 1893-1897, and studied under the psychologist William James, who discovered and encouraged her great capacity for automatic writing, a stream of conscious technique in which the conscious mind is suspended and the unconscious directly evoked. Her studies with James, in psychological experimentation (Mellow, 1947, pp. 31-34), would later resurface in her numerous word portraits. The exaltation of the unconscious mind at the expense of the sophisticated conscious mind was to become an important principle in Stein's work and is manifest in most of her writing. At Radcliffe, she began a lifelong friendship with Mabel Foote Weeks, whose correspondence places much of the progression of Gertrude's life. In 1897, Gertrude spent the summer in Woods Hole, Massachusetts studying embryology at the Marine Biological Laboratory, followed by two years at Johns Hopkins Medical School. In 1901, she left Johns Hopkins without obtaining a degree. [3] Radcliffe College was a liberal arts womens college in Cambridge, Massachusetts, closely associated with Harvard University. ... This article needs additional references or sources for verification. ... For the article about the album by Ataxia, see Automatic Writing (album). ... 1897 (MDCCCXCVII) was a common year starting on Friday (see link for calendar). ... Woods Hole is a census-designated place and village within the town of Falmouth in Barnstable County, Massachusetts, at the extreme southwest corner of Cape Cod, near the island of Marthas Vineyard, and is the site of three famous scientific institutions: Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, the Marine Biological Laboratory... The Marine Biological Laboratory (MBL) is a famous scientific institution located in Woods Hole, Massachusetts. ... The Johns Hopkins University is an internationally prestigious private institution of higher learning located in Baltimore, Maryland. ... Year 1901 (MCMI) was a common year starting on Tuesday (link will display calendar) of the Gregorian calendar (or a common year starting on Monday [1] of the 13-day-slower Julian calendar). ...

Paris, 1903-1914

Rue de Fleurus (27)

In 1903, Gertrude Stein moved to Paris during the height of artistic creativity gathering in Montparnasse. This article is about the capital of France. ... The Montparnasse Tower, which at 209m was the tallest building in Western Europe when it was built. ...

From 1903 to 1914 she lived in Paris with her brother Leo, who became an art critic. Gertrude and Leo compiled one of the earliest collections of modern art. They owned early works by Pablo Picasso (who became a friend and painted her portrait, as well as a portrait of her nephew Allan Stein), Henri Matisse, André Derain, Georges Braque, Juan Gris, and other young painters. Before World War I, their salon at 27 Rue de Fleurus attracted these and other artists and members of the avant garde, including the poet, dramatist, critic, journalist Guillaume Apollinaire (Kellner, 1988, pp 144-45). This article is about the capital of France. ... Leo Stein (born ??-?? 1872 in Allegheny, Pennsylvania; died July 29, 1947 in Florence, Italy) was an American art collector and critic. ... “Picasso” redirects here. ... Allan Stein book cover Allan Stein is a 1999 novel by Matthew Stadler. ... Henri Matisse (December 31, 1869 – November 3, 1954) was a French artist, noted for his use of color and his fluid, brilliant and original draughtsmanship. ... Charing Cross Bridge, London (1906). ... Violin and Candlestic --> -->, Paris, spring 1910, San Francisco Museum of Modern Art Georges Braque (May 13, 1882 – August 31, 1963) was a major 20th century French painter and sculptor who, along with Pablo Picasso, developed the art movement known as cubism. ... The Sunblind, 1914, Tate Gallery. ... “The Great War ” redirects here. ... A Salon of Ladies by Abraham Bosse A salon is a gathering of people under the roof of an inspiring hostess or host, partly to amuse one another and partly to refine their taste and increase their knowledge through conversation and readings, often consciously following Horaces definition of the... Guillaume Apollinaire Guillaume Apollinaire (August 26, 1880 – November 9, 1918) was a poet, writer, and art critic. ...

The Gertrude and Leo Stein art collection included many paintings acquired from the Paris art dealer, Ambroise Vollard. Their brother Michael and sister-in-law Sarah (Sally) amassed a large Henri Matisse collection. Gertrude's friends from Baltimore, Claribel and Etta Cone, collected in a similar vein, eventually donating their collection, virtually intact, to the Baltimore Museum of Art. The collections of the Steins were dispersed by various methods and for various reasons, and over time, as attested in a New York Times reporting of a MOMA exhibition, in an attempt to bring the works back together: The Family Knew What It Liked. Ambroise Vollard (born July 3, 1866, Saint-Denis, La Réunion; died July 21, 1939 in Versailles, France), is regarded as one of the most important dealers in French contemporary art at the beginning of the twentieth century. ... Henri Matisse (December 31, 1869 – November 3, 1954) was a French artist, noted for his use of color and his fluid, brilliant and original draughtsmanship. ... The New York Times is an internationally known daily newspaper published in New York City and distributed in the United States and many other nations worldwide. ...

Gertrude and Leo Stein's art collection was reflective of two famous art exhibitions that took place during their residence together at 27 rue de Fleurus, and to which they contributed, either by lending their art, or by patronizing the featured artists. The first, the Paris Autumn Salon of 1905, introduced Fauvism to the Paris art public, to some shock and political cartooning. The second, the Armory Show of 1913, held in New York City, introduced Modern Art to the United States art public, accompanied by similar public disparagement. Armory Show poster. ...

Leo rented the quarters at 27, Rue de Fleurus, Paris, by April of 1903. Gertrude joined him in the Fall of 1903. (Mellow, 1974, pp.51-53). During this period, Gertrude began friendships with Henri Matisse (about 1905) (Mellow, 1974, p. 82) and with Pablo Picasso (1905) (ibid., p. 85-88 (piecing together conflicting accounts of the first meeting between Picasso and Gertrude)). Gertrude met Mildred Aldrich about 1904, beginning a friendship that lasted to Aldrich's death in 1928. (Kellner, 1988, p. 139-40); Aldrich introduced Gertrude to art patronness Mabel Dodge Luhan (in 1911) (ibid., p. 221) and to the art critic Henry McBride (in 1913) (ibid., p. 225). Henri Matisse (December 31, 1869 – November 3, 1954) was a French artist, noted for his use of color and his fluid, brilliant and original draughtsmanship. ... “Picasso” redirects here. ... Mildred Aldrich (1853-February 19, 1928) was an American journalist and writer. ... Year 1928 (MCMXXVIII) was a leap year starting on Sunday (link will display full calendar) of the Gregorian calendar. ... Mabel Dodge Sterne Luhan, née Ganson (February 26, 1879 - August 13, 1962) was a wealthy American patron of the arts, and a key figure in the Greenwich Village community in the years 1912 – 1916. ... Henry McBride (1867 – 1962) was an American art critic. ...

Q.E.D. (written, 1903)

Gertrude began and finished Q.E.D. (Quod Erat Demonstrandum) which she signed as complete on October 24, 1903. (Ibid., pp. 53-58). This writing is more fully discussed later in this article at Relationship with Alice B. Toklas and its precursors Gertrude Stein (February 3, 1874 – July 27, 1946) was an American writer who became a catalyst in the development of modern art and literature. ...

Fernhurst (written, 1904)

Stein probably began, in 1904, this fictional account of a scandalous triangular affair involving a dean (M. Carey Thomas) and a faculty member (Mary Gwinn) from Bryn Mawr College and a Harvard graduate (Alfred Hodder). (Mellow, 1974, pp. 65-68). Mellow asserts that Fernhurst "is a decidedly minor and awkward piece of writing." (Ibid, p. 67). However, it contains some commentary that suggests Gertrude included autobiography when she discussed the "fateful twenty-ninth year" (ibid.) during which: M(artha) Carey Thomas (January 2, 1857-December 2, 1935) was the president of Bryn Mawr College and an ardent suffragist. ... Bryn Mawr College (pronounced ) is a highly selective womens liberal arts college located in Bryn Mawr, a community in Lower Merion Township, Pennsylvania, ten miles northwest of Philadelphia. ...

Mellow observes that, in 1904, 30-year-old Gertrude "had evidently determined that the 'small hard reality' of her life would be writing". (Ibid., p. 68)

The Steins Grow a Modern Art Gallery, 1904-1907

Leo Stein's acquaintances and study of modern art provided the seed for the famous Stein art collections. He began with Bernard Berenson (Mellow, 1974, pp. 43-44) who hosted Gertrude and Leo in his English country house in 1902, (ibid., p. 47) and who suggested Cezanne and Ambroise Vollard's art gallery. (Ibid., p.52). Bernard Berenson in the garden of his estate Villa I Tatti in 1911 Bernard Berenson (born Bernhard Valvrojenski, June 26, 1865 – October 6, 1959), was an American art historian. ...

The joint collection of Gertrude and Leo Stein began in late 1904, when Michael Stein announced that their trust account had accumulated a balance of 8,000 francs, a windfall. (Mellow, 1974, p.62). They spent this windfall at Vollard's Gallery, buying Gauguin's Sunflowers and Three Tahitians, Cezanne's Bathers, and two Renoirs. (Ibid.)

The art collection grew and the walls at 27 Rue de Fleurus were continuously rearranged to make way for new acquisitions. (27 Rue de Fleurus, circa 1907). (Gertrude seated near sculpture and framed art (1903-04) (MOMA catalog dates photo at 1905 (MOMA, 1970, p. 53)

The MOMA 1970 catalog pinpoints "the first half of 1905" to the timing of the Stein's acquisition of Cezanne's Portrait of Mme Cezanne and Delacroix's Perseus and Andromeda. (MOMA, 1970, p.26). Shortly after the opening of the Paris Autumn Salon of 1905 (on October 18, 1905), the Steins acquired Matisse's Woman with the Hat and Picasso's Young Girl with Basket of Flowers (lower left). (Color plates of Young Girl with Basket of Flowers, or Jeune fille aux fleurs, appear in Hobhouse, 1975, at 68 and Burns, 1970, at 8).

By early 1906 the studio of Leo and Gertrude Stein at 27 Rue de Fleurus, Paris was covered with paintings by Manguin, Bonnard, Picasso, Cezanne, Renoir, Daumier, Matisse, and Toulouse-Lautrec. (Museum of Modern Art, 1970, pp. 88-89 (images of paintings at 27, Rue de Fleurus)).

Three Lives (written, 1905-06)

Among the paintings was a portrait of Madame Cezanne which provided Gertrude with inspiration as she began her career as a writer, and which she credited with her evolving writing style illustrated in her early work, Three Lives:

She began Three Lives in the spring of 1905, and she finished it the following year. (Mellow, 1974, p. 77).

The Makings of Americans (written, 1906-08)

Gertrude Stein fixed the date for her writing of The Makings of Americans from 1906-1908. Her biographer has uncovered evidence that it began in 1902 and did not end until 1911. (Mellow, 1974, p. 114-22). Stein compared her work to James Joyce's Ulysses and to Marcel Proust's In Search of Lost Time. Her critics were less enthusiastic about its place in the canon of great literature. (Ibid., p. 122). This article is about the writer and poet. ... “Proust” redirects here. ...

Cezanne, Matisse, Picasso, and Others

While numerous artists circled into the Stein salon, many of these artists were not represented among the paintings on the wall at 27 Rue de Fleurus (MOMA, 1970 at 28). Renoir, Cezanne, Matisse, and Picasso's works dominated Leo and Gertrude's collection, and Sarah Stein's collection focused on Matisse. (Ibid.) Contemporaries of Leo and Gertrude, Matisse and Picasso became part of their social circle, and were a part of the early Saturday evenings at 27 Rue de Fleurus. Gertrude attributed the beginnings of the Saturday evening salons to Matisse, as Pierre-Auguste Renoir (February 25, 1841–December 3, 1919) was a French artist who was a leading painter in the development of the Impressionist style. ...

Among the Picasso circle who frequented the Saturday evenings were: Fernande Oliver (Picasso's mistress), Georges Braque (artist), Andre Derain (artist), Max Jacob (poet), Guillaume Apollinaire (poet), Marie Laurencin (Apollinaire's mistress and an artist in her own right), Henri (Le Douanier) Rousseau (painter) (Mellow, 1974, p. 94-95). Violin and Candlestic --> -->, Paris, spring 1910, San Francisco Museum of Modern Art Georges Braque (May 13, 1882 – August 31, 1963) was a major 20th century French painter and sculptor who, along with Pablo Picasso, developed the art movement known as cubism. ... Charing Cross Bridge, London (1906) Andr Derain (June 10, 1880 - September 8, 1954) was a French painter and illustrator. ... In 1915, Max Jacob and Pablo Picasso Max Jacob (July 12, 1876 – March 5, 1944) was a French poet, painter, writer, and critic. ... Guillaume Apollinaire Guillaume Apollinaire (August 26, 1880 – November 9, 1918) was a poet, writer, and art critic. ... Marie Laurencin photographed by Carl Van Vechten, 1949 Marie Laurencin (October 31, 1883 — June 8, 1956) was a Parisian painter and engraver. ...

Marking the height of their joint art collecting, in late 1906 or early 1907, Leo and Gertrude held a luncheon honoring the artists they patronized. The records are incomplete, as to the specific date of the luncheon and as to the guest list. (Mellow, 1974, pp. 101-02). Artists who were frequent guests at the Rue de Fleurus at the time, or whose art the Steins had purchased, who would have been considered for the guest list included: Pablo Picasso, Henri Matisse, Felix Vallotton, Maurice Denis, Henri Manguin, Alfred Maurer, Georges Braque, Mahonri Young, H. Lyman Saven, and Pierre Bonnard. More than one of Gertrude's biographers record this event by focusing on a hostess trick Gertrude employed, in which she seated each artist facing his own work. (Mellow) (Hobhouse) (Kellner). Matisse's observations to Gertrude, about this successful effort to enliven the luncheon guests, has passed into the Stein canon. “Picasso” redirects here. ... Henri Matisse (December 31, 1869 – November 3, 1954) was a French artist, noted for his use of color and his fluid, brilliant and original draughtsmanship. ... Félix Vallotton was a Franco-Swiss painter, engraver, illustrator and writer (Lausanne 1865-Paris 1925). ... Maurice Denis (November 25, 1870 – November 1943) was a French painter and writer and a member of the Symbolist and Les Nabis movements. ... Henri Charles Manguin (1874-1949) was a French painter. ... Violin and Candlestic --> -->, Paris, spring 1910, San Francisco Museum of Modern Art Georges Braque (May 13, 1882 – August 31, 1963) was a major 20th century French painter and sculptor who, along with Pablo Picasso, developed the art movement known as cubism. ... Mahonri Macintosh Young (August 9, 1877 – November 2, 1957) was an American sculptor and artist. ... The Dining Room in the Country Pierre Bonnard (October 3, 1867 – January 23, 1947) was a French painter and printmaker. ...

Shortly after this luncheon, Gertrude met Alice B. Toklas. About this time, also, Picasso's art turned toward Cubism, as did Gertrude's writing, developments of which Leo vocally disapproved: "Leo could not accept Cubism as having any permanent value, and his disparagement of Gertrude's writing became more severe as she identified her own aims in literature with those of Picasso in painting" (MOMA, 1970, p. 28).

Alice B. Toklas, 1907

Stein met her lifelong partner, Alice B. Toklas [4], on September 8, 1907 on Alice's first day in Paris, at Sarah and Michael Stein's apartment. (Mellow, 1974, at 107) On meeting Stein, Toklas wrote: Alice B. Toklas, photographed by Carl Van Vechten, 1949 Alice B. Toklas (April 30, 1877 – March 7, 1967) was the lover and confidante of writer Gertrude Stein. ... is the 251st day of the year (252nd in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... Year 1907 (MCMVII) was a common year starting on Tuesday (link will display the full calendar) of the Gregorian calendar (or a common year starting on Monday of the 13-day-slower Julian calendar). ...

(Mellow, 1974, at 107-08) (reference from previous edit^[1]).

Shortly thereafter, Gertrude introduced Alice to Pablo Picasso in his studio, where Picasso was at work on Les Demoiselles d'Avignon (Mellow, 1984, at 109-14). Les Demoiselles d'Avignon was a painting that "marked the beginning of the end of Leo's support for Picasso." (Ibid., at 113). “Picasso” redirects here. ...

In 1908, they summered in Fiesole, Italy, Alice staying with Harriet Levy, her companion on the trip from the United States and house mate until Alice moved in with Gertrude and Leo, in 1910. (Ibid., at 122). That summer, Gertrude stayed with Michael & Sarah Stein, their son Allan, and Leo in a villa nearby. (Ibid.) Gertrude and Alice's summer of 1908 is memorialized in images of the two of them in Florence, at the piazza in front of Saint Mark's (ibid.): (1) image); (2) image.

Alice arrived in 1907 with Harriet Levy and Alice maintained living arrangements with Harriet until Alice moved to 27 Rue de Fleurus, in 1910. In a portrait written at the time, Gertrude humorously discussed the complex efforts, involving much letter writing and Victorian niceties, to extricate Harriet from Alice's living arrangements. (Mellow, 1974, at 149-51). In "Harriet", Gertrude considers Harriet's nonexistent plans for the summer, and then her nonexistent plans for the winter: Year 1910 (MCMX) was a common year starting on Saturday (link will display calendar) of the Gregorian calendar (or a common year starting on Friday [1] of the 13-day-slower Julian calendar). ...

(Portraits and Prayers, 1934, at 105-07).

Alice's March 1967 obituary in the New York Times outlines some aspects of her relationship with Gertrude.

The Rousseau Banquet, 1908

Gertrude's version of the Rousseau Banquet of 1908, in The Autobiography of Alice B. Toklas assigned it "legendary status as a symbol of the freewheeling bohemian life of Paris in the decade before World War I." (Mellow, 1974, 139). The banquet, held sometime in 1908 at Picasso's Bateau Lavoir studio, was prompted by Picasso's purchase of a Rousseau painting and gathered together the pre-World War I avante garde, until the wee hours of the morning. (Ibid., at 138). Various, and conflicting, accounts of the banquet exist: Gertrude's, Leo Stein's, Fernande Oliver's, Maurice Raynal's, and Andre Salmon's. (Ibid.) The tales place the famous names in inebriated and compromising positions, and, in a sense, mark a high point in the pre-war years of youthful creativity and dissipation. (Ibid. at 138-44). 1908 (MCMVIII) was a leap year starting on Wednesday (link will display the full calendar). ...

Mabel [Ganson Evans] Dodge [Sterne] Luhan, 1911-1913

Mabel Dodge Luhan had a short lived, but eventful, friendship with Gertrude that was a catalyst to Gertrude's renown in the United States. Mabel Dodge attributed the break to an exchange in the autumn of 1912, when over lunch, Gertrude sent her "such a good strong look over the table that it seemed to cut across the air to me in a band of electrified steel--a smile traveling across on it--powerful--Heavens!" (Kellner, 1988, pp. 220-21.) Alice interpreted the look as a flirtation, left the room (ibid., p. 222), prompting Gertrude to follow, and when Gertrude returned, she said, "[Alice] doesn't want to come lunch ... She feels the heat today." (Mellow, 1974, p. 180) Earlier, in 1911, Mildred Aldrich had introduced Gertrude to Mabel Dodge, at 27 Rue de Fleurus, at which time they became immediate admirers. (Kellner, 1998, p. 221). Mabel was enthusiastic about Gertrude's sprawling The Makings of Americans and, at a time when Gertrude had much difficulty selling her writing to publishers, privately published 300 copies of Portrait of Mabel Dodge at Villa Curonia, (ibid.) a copy of which was valued at $25,000 in 2007 (James S. Jaffee Rare Books). Dodge was involved in the publicity and planning of the 69th Armory Show in 1913, "the first avant-garde art exhibition in America." (Ibid.) She also wrote the first critical analysis of Gertrude's writing to appear in America, in "Speculations, or Post-Impressionists in Prose," published in a special March 1913 publication of Arts and Decoration. (Mellow, 1974, at 170). Foreshadowing Gertrude's later critical reception, Mabel wrote in "Speculations": Mabel Dodge Sterne Luhan, née Ganson (February 26, 1879 - August 13, 1962) was a wealthy American patron of the arts, and a key figure in the Greenwich Village community in the years 1912 – 1916. ... Armory Show poster. ...

Carl Van Vechten and Henry McBride, 1913

Carl Van Vechten (music critic for the New York Times and then drama critic for the New York Press), and Henry McBride (art critic for the New York Sun), did much to further Stein's American reputation. (Mellow, 1974, pp. 197, 192). Both had wide-circulation newspaper platforms in which they frequently offered Gertude's name to the public. Carl Van Vechten (June 17, 1880 – December 21, 1964) was an American writer and photographer who was a patron of the Harlem Renaissance and the literary executor of Gertrude Stein. ... The New York Times is an internationally known daily newspaper published in New York City and distributed in the United States and many other nations worldwide. ... New York Press is a free alternative weekly in New York City. ... Henry McBride (1867 – 1962) was an American art critic. ... The modern New York Sun is a daily newspaper published in New York City. ...

Of the art collection at 27 Rue de Fleurus, McBride commented: "in proportion to its size and quality ... [it is] just about the most potent of any that I have ever heard of in history." (Ibid. p. 193). McBride also made the observation that Gertrude "collected geniuses rather than masterpieces. She recognized them a long way off." (Ibid.)

Van Vechten's first writing about Gertrude appeared, before he met her, in the New York Times in the article, Cubist of Letters Writes a New Book. (Mellow, 1974, p. 198). Van Vechten became a life-long friend, and his Stein portraits, many of which are in the public domain, provide images of Gertrude and Alice through the years. (Van Vechten self-portrait with Stein and Toklas (1925)).

Writings, 1908-1914

First Publication in Alfred Stieglitz's Camera Work (August 1912)

Gertrude's Matisse and Picasso word portraits appeared in Alfred Stieglitz's August 1912 edition of Camera Work, a special edition devoted to Picasso and Matisse, and represented her very first publication (Kellner, 1988, p. 266). Of this publication, Gertrude said, "[h]e was the first one that ever printed anything that I had done. And you can imagine what that meant to me or to any one." (Ibid.) He was a loser. ... Clarence H. Whites photo, Ring Toss, featured in an edition of Camera Work Camera Work was a quarterly photographic publication by Alfred Stieglitz and the Photo-Secessionists from 1902 to 1917 that was known for its high-quality reproductions and its effort to establish photography as a fine art. ...

Word Portraits (written, 1908-1913)

Gertrude's word portraits apparently began with her portrait of Alice B. Toklas, "a little prose vignette, a kind of happy inspiration that had detached itself from the torrential prose of The Makings of Americans". (Mellow, 1974, p. 129). Gertrude's early efforts at word portraits are catalogued in Mellow, 1974, p. 129-37 and under individual's names in Kellner, 1988. Matisse and Picasso were subjects of early portraits (Mellow, 1974, 154-55, 157-58), later collected and published in Geography and Plays (published 1922) and Portraits and Prayers (published 1934). (Kellner, 1988, pp. 34-35 and 56-57). The Matisse and Picasso portraits were reprinted in MOMA, 1970, pp. 99-102.

Her subjects included many ultimately famouse personages, and her subjects provided an inside view of what she observed in her Saturday salons at 27 Rue de Fleurus: "Ada" (Alice B. Toklas), "Two Women" (The Cone Sisters) (Claribel Cone and Etta Cone), "Miss Furr and Miss Skeene" (Ethel Mars and Maud Hunt Squire), "Men" (Hutchins Hapgood, David Edstrom, Maurice Sterne), "Matisse" (1909) (Henri Matisse), "Picasso" (1909) (Pablo Picasso), "Portrait of Mabel Dodge at the Villa Curonia" (1911) (Mabel Dodge Luhan), and "Guillaume Apollinaire" (1913). Alice B. Toklas, photographed by Carl Van Vechten, 1949 Alice B. Toklas (April 30, 1877 – March 7, 1967) was the lover and confidante of writer Gertrude Stein. ... Claribel Cone (1864-1929), and her sister Etta Cone (1870-1949) were art collectors who amassed one of the most important art collections in the world, the Cone Collection, now housed in the Baltimore Museum of Art. ... Hutchins Hapgood (Chicago, May 21, 1869 - Provincetown, MA, November 19, 1944) was an U.S. journalist, author, and anarchist. ... (see Mabel Dodge Luhan) ... Henri Matisse (December 31, 1869 – November 3, 1954) was a French artist, noted for his use of color and his fluid, brilliant and original draughtsmanship. ... “Picasso” redirects here. ... Mabel Dodge Sterne Luhan, née Ganson (February 26, 1879 - August 13, 1962) was a wealthy American patron of the arts, and a key figure in the Greenwich Village community in the years 1912 – 1916. ... Guillaume Apollinaire Guillaume Apollinaire (August 26, 1880 – November 9, 1918) was a poet, writer, and art critic. ...

Tender Buttons (written, 1912)

Tender Buttons is the best known of Gertrude Stein's hermetic works. (Kellner, 1988, p. 61-62). Its publication in 1914 created a rift between Mabel Dodge Luhan and Gertrude, because Mabel had been working to place it with another publisher. (Mellow, 1974, p. 178). Mabel wrote at length about the bad choice in publishing it with the press Gertrude selected. (Ibid.) Evans wrote Gertrude: Mabel Dodge Sterne Luhan, née Ganson (February 26, 1879 - August 13, 1962) was a wealthy American patron of the arts, and a key figure in the Greenwich Village community in the years 1912 – 1916. ...

Claire Marie Press ... is absolutely third rate, & in bad odor here, being called for the most part 'decadent" and Broadwayish and that sort of thing. . . . I think it would be a pity to publish with [Claire Marie Press] if it will emphasize the idea in the opinion of the public, that there is something degenerate & effete & decadent about the whole of the cubist movement which they all connect you with, because, hang it all, as long as they don't understand a thing they think all sorts of things. My feeling in this is quite strong.

(Ibid.) Gertrude ignored Mabel's exhortations, and eventually Mabel, and published 1,000 copies of the book, in 1914. (An antiquarian copy was valued at over $1,200 in 2007). Tender Buttons is part of the Gutenberg project which offers a free on-line version: Tender Buttons Project Gutenberg (PG) was launched by Michael Hart in 1971 in order to provide a library, on what would later become the Internet, of free electronic versions (sometimes called e-texts) of physically existing books. ...

Separation of Leo and Gertrude's Art Collection, 1914

After Gertrude's and Leo's households separated in 1914, she kept most of the Picasso paintings the two had collected and later acquired examples of Picasso's Cubist art. (Gertrude several years later). The break occurred in April 1914, when Leo moved to Settignano, Italy, near Florence. The division of their art collection was described in a letter by Leo, in which he stated: Pablo Picasso, Le guitariste, 1910 Juan Gris, Portrait of Picasso, 1912, oil on canvas Georges BraqueWoman with a guitar, 1913 Juan Gris, Still Life with Fruit Dish and Mandolin, 1919, oil on canvas Cubist villa in Prague, Czech Republic Cubist House of the Black Madonna, Prague, Czech Republic, 1912 Cubism... Year 1914 (MCMXIV) was a common year starting on Thursday (link will display the full calendar) of the Gregorian calendar (or a common year starting on Wednesday of the 13-day-slower Julian calendar). ... La piazza di Settignano, Telemaco Signorini, 1880 Settignano is a picturesque frazione ranged on a hillside northeast of Florence, Italy, with spectacular views that have attracted expatriates for generations. ...

(An image of "the Cezanne apples" appears in MOMA, 1970, Plate 19).

World War I

When Britain declared war on Germany in World War I, Stein and Toklas were visiting Alfred North Whitehead in England. They returned to France and, after Stein had been taught to drive by her friend William Edwards Cook, they volunteered to drive supplies to French hospitals; they were later honored by the French government for this work. Stein and Toklas became close friends with writer Natalie Barney, and Stein became friends with wealthy writer and magazine publisher Bryher. “The Great War ” redirects here. ... Alfred North Whitehead, OM (February 15, 1861 Ramsgate, Kent, England – December 30, 1947 Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA) was an English-born mathematician who became a philosopher. ... William Edwards Cook (August 31, 1881 - November 10, 1959) was an American-born expatriate artist, architectural patron, and long-time friend of Gertrude Stein, the American writer. ... Nathalie Barney (1876-1972), also known as Natalie Barney, was a American heiress who became well known as the mistress of a literary salon in France. ... Bryher (1894-1983) was the pen name of Annie Winnifred Ellerman. ...

1920s

In the 1920s, her salon at 27 Rue de Fleurus, with walls covered by avant-garde paintings, attracted many of the great writers of the time, including Ernest Hemingway, Ezra Pound, Thornton Wilder, and Sherwood Anderson. While she has been credited with coining the term "Lost Generation" for some of these expatriate American writers, at least three versions of the story that led to the phrase are on record, two by Ernest Hemingway and one by Gertrude Stein (Mellow, 1974, pp. 273-74). During the 20s, she became friends with writer Mina Loy, and the two would remain lifelong friends. Extremely charming, eloquent, and cheerful, she had a large circle of friends and tirelessly promoted herself. Her judgments in literature and art were highly influential. She was Ernest Hemingway's mentor, and upon the birth of his son he asked her to be the godmother of his child. In the summer of 1931, Stein advised the young composer and writer Paul Bowles to go to Tangier, where she and Alice had vacationed. A Salon of Ladies by Abraham Bosse A salon is a gathering of people under the roof of an inspiring hostess or host, partly to amuse one another and partly to refine their taste and increase their knowledge through conversation and readings, often consciously following Horaces definition of the... Ernest Miller Hemingway (July 21, 1899 – July 2, 1961) was an American novelist, short-story writer, and journalist. ... Ezra Pound in 1913. ... Image:Thorntonwilderteeth. ... Sherwood Anderson in 1933. ... For other uses, see Lost Generation (disambiguation). ... This article does not cite any references or sources. ... Ernest Miller Hemingway (July 21, 1899 – July 2, 1961) was an American novelist, short-story writer, and journalist. ... Image:Loy-Haweis1904. ... Paul Frederic Bowles (December 30, 1910 - November 18, 1999), was an American composer, author, and traveler. ... A view of Tangier bay at sunrise as seen from Cape Malabata Tangier - Avenue Mohammed VI Tangier (Tanja طنجة in Berber and Arabic, Tánger in Spanish, Tânger in Portuguese, and Tanger in French) is a city of northern Morocco with a population of 669,680 (2004 census). ...

World War II

Prior to World War II she made public her sardonic opinion that Adolf Hitler should be awarded the Nobel Peace Prize. "I say that Hitler ought to have the peace prize, because he is removing all the elements of contest and of struggle from Germany. By driving out the Jews and the democratic and Left element, he is driving out everything that conduces to activity. That means peace ... By suppressing Jews ... he was ending struggle in Germany" (New York Times Magazine, May 6, 1934). Stein was later to comment on Hilter, Mussolini, and Roosevelt: "There is too much fathering going on just now and there is no doubt about it fathers are depressing" (Blackmer 1995). Combatants Allied powers: China France Great Britain Soviet Union United States and others Axis powers: Germany Italy Japan and others Commanders Chiang Kai-shek Charles de Gaulle Winston Churchill Joseph Stalin Franklin Roosevelt Adolf Hitler Benito Mussolini Hideki Tōjō Casualties Military dead: 17,000,000 Civilian dead: 33,000... Hitler redirects here. ...

With the outbreak of World War II, Stein and Toklas moved to a country home that they had rented for many years previously in Bilignin, Ain, in the Rhône-Alpes region. Referred to only as "Americans" by their neighbors, the Jewish Gertrude and Alice escaped persecution probably because of their friendship to Bernard Faÿ, a collaborator with the Vichy regime and connections to the Gestapo. When Faÿ was sentenced to hard labor for life after the war, Gertrude and Alice campaigned for his release. Several years later, Alice would contribute money to Faÿ's escape from prison. Combatants Allied powers: China France Great Britain Soviet Union United States and others Axis powers: Germany Italy Japan and others Commanders Chiang Kai-shek Charles de Gaulle Winston Churchill Joseph Stalin Franklin Roosevelt Adolf Hitler Benito Mussolini Hideki Tōjō Casualties Military dead: 17,000,000 Civilian dead: 33,000... Préfecture building of the Ain département, in Bourg-en-Bresse Ain is a département named after the Ain River on the eastern edge of France bordering Switzerland. ... (Région flag) (Region logo) Location Administration Capital Lyon Regional President Jean-Jack Queyranne (PS) (since 2004) Departments Ain Ardèche Drôme Isère Loire Rhône Savoie Haute-Savoie Arrondissements 25 Cantons 335 Communes 2,879 Statistics Land area1 43,698 km² Population (Ranked 2nd)  - January 1, 2006... Bernard Faÿ (3 April 1893 - 5 December 1978) was a French historian of Franco-American relations[1] and an anti-Masonic polemicist. ... The   (contraction of Geheime Staatspolizei: “secret state police”) was the official secret police of Nazi Germany. ...

After the war, Gertrude's status in Paris grew when she was visited by many young American soldiers. She died at the age of 72 from stomach cancer in Neuilly-sur-Seine on July 27, 1946, and was interred in Paris in the Père Lachaise cemetery. Stomach cancer (also called gastric cancer) can develop in any part of the stomach and may spread throughout the stomach and to other organs; particularly the esophagus and the small intestine. ... Neuilly-sur-Seine is a commune in the Hauts-de-Seine département in France. ... is the 208th day of the year (209th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... Year 1946 (MCMXLVI) was a common year starting on Tuesday (link will display full 1946 calendar) of the Gregorian calendar. ... Looking down the hill at the Père-Lachaise cemetery The cimetière du Père-Lachaise (pronounced pierre la-sh-ez) is the largest cemetery in the city of Paris (there are larger cemeteries in Paris suburbs). ...

In one account by Toklas^[2], when Stein was being wheeled into the operating room for surgery on her stomach, she asked Toklas, "What is the answer?" When Toklas did not answer, Stein said, "In that case, what is the question?"

Stein named writer and photographer Carl Van Vechten as her literary executor, and he helped to usher into print works of hers which remained unpublished at the time of her death. A monument to Stein stands on the Upper Terrace of Bryant Park, New York. Carl Van Vechten (June 17, 1880 – December 21, 1964) was an American writer and photographer who was a patron of the Harlem Renaissance and the literary executor of Gertrude Stein. ... A literary executor is a person with decision-making power in respect of a literary estate. ... Bryant Park, August 2003 Bryant Park is a 9. ... This article is about the state. ...

Relationship with Alice B. Toklas, and its precursors

Stein is the author of one of the earliest coming out stories Q.E.D. (published in 1950 as Things as They Are), written in 1903 and suppressed by the author. The story, writing during travels after dropping out, is based on a love triangle she joined while studying at Johns Hopkins in Baltimore. The triangle was complicated in that Stein was less experienced with the closeted social dynamics of romantic friendship as well as her own sexuality and any moral dilemmas regarding it. Stein maintained at the time that she detested "passion in its many disguised forms". The relationships of Stein's acquaintances Mabel Haynes and Grace Lounsbury ended as Haynes started one with May Bookstaver. Stein fell in love with Bookstaver but was unsuccessful in advancing their relationship. Haynes and Lounsbury later married men. (Blackmer 1995, p.681-686) Two women share a close Neoclassical moment in Tübingen. ...

Her growing awareness of her sexuality began to interfere with the bourgeois values implicit in her medical studies and would have put her at odds with contemporary feminist theory and opinion and Q.E.D may have assisted her with understanding her scholarly and romantic failure. However, Stein began to accept and define her masculinity through the ideas of Otto Weininger's Sex and Character (1906). Weininger, though Jewish by birth, considered Jewish men effeminate and women as incapable of selfhood and genius, except for female homosexuals who may approximate masculinity. (ibid) Otto Weininger (April 3, 1880 – October 4, 1903) was an Austrian philosopher. ...

More positive affirmations of Stein's sexuality and gender began with her relationship with Toklas. Ernest Hemingway describes how Alice was Gertrude's 'wife' in that Stein rarely addressed his (Hemingway's) wife, and he treated Alice the same, leaving the two "wives" to chat. Alice was 4'11" tall, and Gertrude was 5'1" (Grahn 1989).

The more affirming portrait "Miss Furr and Miss Skeene" is one of the first coming out stories to be published. The piece, like Q.E.D is informed by Stein's growing involvement with a gay and lesbian community (Grahn 1989) though it is based on lesbian partners Maud Hunt Squire and Ethel Mars (Blackmer 1995). The piece contains the word "gay" over one hundred times, perhaps the first published use of the word "gay" in reference to same-sex relationships and those who have them (Blackmer 1995) and as such uninformed readers missed any lesbian content. A similar portrait of gay men begins more obviously with the line "Sometimes men are kissing" but is less well known. (ibid)

Steins work begins, with Tender Buttons, to celebrate lesbian sexuality and abound "highly condensed layers of public and private meanings" created by wordplay including puns on "box", "cow", and in titles such as "tender buttons". (ibid)

Political views

Gertrude was politically ambiguous, but clear on at least two points: she disapproved of unemployment when she had trouble getting servants (Hobhouse, 1975, p.209), and she had "a general dislike of father figures". (Ibid.)

As for the unemployed she said,

(Ibid., with citations to Gertrude Stein's words in Everybody's Biography).

Reflecting her childhood resistance to variously autocratic and permissive (but consistently non-sensical) parenting by her father, Gertrude's thoughts and deeds demonstrated a bipartisan disrespect for political father figures:

(Hobhouse, 1975, p. 210, with citation to W.G. Rogers, When This You See Remember Me: Gertrude Stein in Person, Rinehard, New York, 1948).

Artistic Renderings of Gertrude Stein

1906--Pablo Picasso, painting; 1907--Felix Vallotton, painting; 1912--Michael Brenner, sculpture; 1913--Alvin Langdon Coburn, photograph; photograph; 1920--Jacques Lipchitz, sculpture; 1923--Man Ray, photograph (with Alice B. Toklas); photograph (with Joe Davidson); 1923--Jo Davidson, sculpture, photo of Jo Davidson sculpture by Dewitt Ward; 1927--Man Ray, photograph; 1928--Christian Berard, drawing, drawing; 1929--Eugene Berman, Portrait of Gertrude Stein at Bilignin, pen and ink (Mellow, 1974, image insert pp. 340-41); 1930--Pavel Tchelitchew, brush and black ink drawing; 1930's? (n.d.)--Antoinette Champetier De Ribes, sculpture; 1931--George Platt Lynes, photograph; photograph; 1933--Francis Picabia, painting; photograph of painting (Beinecke Library); 1934/1963--Carl Van Vechten 1963 photograph, of a 1963 painting by Richard Banks (artist), of a 1934 photograph by Carl Van Vechten; 1934--Samuel Johnson Woolf, drawing for October 27, 1934 Newsweek; 1935--Pierre Tal-Coat, painting; 1935--Imogen Cunningham, photograph; 1936--Cecil Beaton, photograph; 1938--Cecil Beaton, photograph; 1945--Francesco Riba-Rovira, painting (referenced in Kellner, 1988, p. 242); 1975--Red Grooms, multi-media; 1980--Andy Warhol, painting; 1991--Faith Ringgold, quilt. “Picasso” redirects here. ... Félix Vallotton was a Franco-Swiss painter, engraver, illustrator and writer (Lausanne 1865-Paris 1925). ... :Alvin Langdon Coburn was born in 1882 and died in 1966. ... Birth of the Muses, bronze, 1944-1950. ... Man Ray, photographed at Gaite-Montparnasse exhibition in Paris by Carl Van Vechten on June 16, 1934 Man Ray (August 27, 1890–November 18, 1976) was an American artist who spent most of his career in Paris, France. ... Jo Davidson (March 30, 1883 - January 2, 1952) was a U.S. sculptor. ... Man Ray, photographed at Gaite-Montparnasse exhibition in Paris by Carl Van Vechten on June 16, 1934 Man Ray (August 27, 1890–November 18, 1976) was an American artist who spent most of his career in Paris, France. ... Christian Berard (1902-1949) AKA Bébé was a French artist, fashion illustrator, and designer. ... Eugène Berman (Russian: ; November 4, 1899, Moscow - December 14, 1972) was a Russian Neo-romantic painter, collector and theater and opera designer. ... Categories: Stub | 1898 births | 1957 deaths ... self portrait of George Platt Lynes George Platt Lynes (15 April 1907 – 6 December 1955) was an American fashion and commercial photographer. ... Francis Picabia in his studio. ... Carl Van Vechten (June 17, 1880 – December 21, 1964) was an American writer and photographer who was a patron of the Harlem Renaissance and the literary executor of Gertrude Stein. ... about Richard Banks Reference for Richard Banks: front pages image, Bruce Kellner, A Gertrude Stein Companion: content with the example (Greenwood Press: 1988); ISBN 0313250782 Image by Richard Banks (artists) linked in Gertrude Stein biography. ... The Newsweek logo Newsweek is a weekly news magazine published in New York City and distributed throughout the United States and internationally. ... Imogen Cunningham (April 12, 1883 - June 24, 1976) was an American photographer known for her photography of botanicals, nudes and industry. ... Sir Cecil Walter Hardy Beaton (January 14, 1904 – January 18, 1980) was an English fashion and portrait photographer and a stage and costume designer for films and the theatre. ... Sir Cecil Walter Hardy Beaton (January 14, 1904 – January 18, 1980) was an English fashion and portrait photographer and a stage and costume designer for films and the theatre. ... Red Grooms (born Charles Rogers Grooms on June 7, 1937) is an American multimedia artist best known for his colorful pop-art constructions depicting frenetic scenes of modern urban life. ... Andrew Warhola (August 6, 1928 — February 22, 1987), better known as Andy Warhol, was an American artist who was a central figure in the movement known as Pop art. ... Faith Ringgold (born October 8, 1930) is an [African] American artist and author. ...

Snapshots: Welcome to 27 Rue de Fleurus; with Godiva and Alice B. Toklas; passport photos; passport photos; with Alice; with Alice; with Alice and Basket at Bilignin; with Alice (studio portrait); Moving Forward; War's End; MOMA Installation of Picasso Portrait.

Hobhouse, 1975; Kellner, 1988; Mellow, 1974; Stendhal, 1994 (image dating and source authors).

Writings

Portrait of Gertrude Stein by Carl Van Vechten

Stein's writing appears on three different planes: her hermetic works that have gone largely unread, as best illustrated by Stein's The Making of Americans: The Hersland Family; her popularized writing in The Autobiography of Alice B. Toklas which made her famous; and her speech writing and more accessible autobiographical writing of later years, of which Brewsie and Willie is a good example. Portrait of Gertrude Stein by Carl Van Vechten; public domain as part of the Creative Americans Collection donated to the Library of Congress. ... Portrait of Gertrude Stein by Carl Van Vechten; public domain as part of the Creative Americans Collection donated to the Library of Congress. ... Carl Van Vechten (June 17, 1880 – December 21, 1964) was an American writer and photographer who was a patron of the Harlem Renaissance and the literary executor of Gertrude Stein. ...

After moving to Paris in 1903, she started to write in earnest: novels, plays, stories, libretti and poems. Increasingly, she developed her own highly idiosyncratic, playful, sometimes repetitive and sometimes humorous style. Typical quotes are: "Rose is a rose is a rose is a rose"; "Out of kindness comes redness and out of rudeness comes rapid same question, out of an eye comes research, out of selection comes painful cattle"; about Oakland, "There is no there there"; and "The change of color is likely and a difference a very little difference is prepared. Sugar is not a vegetable." Libretto can also refer to a sub-notebook PC manufactured by Toshiba. ... The sentence Rose is a rose is a rose is a rose. ... “Oakland” redirects here. ...

These stream-of-consciousness experiments, rhythmical word-paintings or "portraits", were designed to evoke "the excitingness of pure being" and can be seen as an answer to Cubism, and/or photomontage, in literature. Many of the experimental works such as Tender Buttons have since been interpreted by critics as a feminist reworking of patriarchal language. These works were loved by the avant-garde, but mainstream success initially remained elusive. Pablo Picasso, Le guitariste, 1910 Juan Gris, Portrait of Picasso, 1912, oil on canvas Georges BraqueWoman with a guitar, 1913 Juan Gris, Still Life with Fruit Dish and Mandolin, 1919, oil on canvas Cubist villa in Prague, Czech Republic Cubist House of the Black Madonna, Prague, Czech Republic, 1912 Cubism...

Judy Grahn lists the following principles behind Stein's work: 1) Commonality, 2) Essence, 3) Value, 4) Grounding the Continuous present, 5) Play, and 6) Transformation Judy Rae Grahn (born July 28, 1940, in Chicago) is an American poet. ...

Though Gertrude collected cubist paintings (primarily by Picasso until she could no longer afford them), the biggest visual or painterly influence on Stein's work is that of Cezanne, specifically in her idea of equality, what Judy Grahn calls commonality, distinguishing from universality or equality: "the whole field of the canvas is important" (p. 8). Rather than a figure/ground relationship, "Stein in her work with words used the entire text as a field in which every element mattered as much as any other." It is a subjective relationship that includes more than one viewpoint, to quote Stein: "The important thing is that you must have deep down as the deepest thing in you a sense of equality." Categories: 1839 births | 1906 deaths | French painters | Post-impressionism | Artist stubs ...

Grahn ascribes much of the repetition of Stein's work to her search for descriptions of the "bottom nature" of her characters, such as in The Making of Americans where even the narrator's essence is described through the repetition of narrative phrases such as "As I was saying" and "There will be now a history of her". Grahn: "Using the idea of everything belonging to a whole field and mattering equally, as well as each being having an essence of its own, she inevitably wrote patterns rather than linear sequences." (p.13)

Grahn means value in the sense of overall lightness or darkness of a painting. Stein used many Anglo-Saxon words and few Latin-based words: blood instead of sanguine. She also avoided words with "too much association". "One consequence of developing value and essence as the basis of her work, rather than social themes, dramatic imagery or linear plots, is that she developed a remarkable objective voice. To an uncanny degree at times, social judgement is absent in her author's voice, as the reader is left the power to decide how to think and feel about the writing." Grahn continues, "Anxiety, fear and anger are not played upon, and this alone sets her apart from most modern authors. Her work is harmonic and integrative, not alienated; at the same time it is grounded useful, not wistful and fantastic." (p.15)

Stein predominantly used the present tense, "ing", creating a continuous present in her work, which Grahn argues is a consequence of the previous principles, especially commonality and centeredness. Grahn describes play as the granting of autonomy and agency to the readers or audience, "rather than the emotional manipulation that is a characteristic of linear writing, Stein uses play." (p.18) In addition Stein's work is funny, and multilayered, allowing a variety of interpretations and engagements. Lastly Grahn argues that one must "insterstand ... engage with the work, to mix with it in an active engagement, rather than 'figuring it out.' Figure it in." (p.21)

Gertrude Stein wrote in longhand, typically about half an hour per day. Alice B. Toklas would collect the pages, type them up and deal with the publishing and was generally supportive while Leo Stein publicly criticized his sister's work. Indeed, Toklas founded the publisher "Plain Editions" to distribute Stein's work. Today, most manuscripts are kept in the Beinecke Library at Yale University. Yale Universitys Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library was a 1963 gift of the Beinecke family. ... Yale redirects here. ...

In 1932, using an accessible style to accommodate the ordinary reading public, she wrote The Autobiography of Alice B. Toklas; the book would become her first best-seller. Despite the title, it was really her own autobiography. She described herself as extremely confident, one might even say arrogant, always convinced that she was a genius. She was disdainful of mundane tasks and Alice Toklas managed everyday affairs.

The style of the autobiography was quite similar to that of The Alice B. Toklas Cookbook, which was actually written by Alice and contains several unusual recipes such as one for Hashish Fudge (also called Alice B. Toklas brownies), submitted by Brion Gysin. Confiscated hashish. ... An Alice B. Toklas brownie, also known as an Alice B. Tokin brownie or more colloquially as a bud brownie, magic brownie, or special brownie, is a type of hash cookie (a cake containing cannabis). ... Brion Gysin (January 19, 1916 - July 13, 1986) was a writer, painter, and musician born outside of London, Taplow, Buckinghamshire. ...

Several of Stein's writings have been set by composers, including Virgil Thomson's operas Four Saints in Three Acts and The Mother of Us All, and James Tenney's skillful if short setting of Rose is a rose is a rose is a rose as a canon dedicated to Philip Corner, beginning with "a" on an upbeat and continuing so that each repetition shuffles the words, eg. "a/rose is a rose/is a rose is/a rose is a/rose." Virgil Thomson, photographed by Carl Van Vechten, 1947 Virgil Thomson (November 25, 1896 - September 30, 1989) was an American composer from Missouri, whose rural background gave a sense of place in his compositions. ... Four Saints in Three Acts is an opera by American composer Virgil Thomson with a libretto by Gertrude Stein. ... James Tenney (August 10, 1934 in Silver City, NM) is an American composer and influential music theorist. ... In music, a canon is a contrapuntal composition that employs a melody with one or more imitations of the melody played after a given duration (e. ... Philip (Lionel) Corner (April 10, 1933—) is a composer as well as trombonist, vocalist, and pianist. ...

Reception

Sherwood Anderson in his public introduction to Stein's 1922 publication of Geography and Plays wrote: Sherwood Anderson in 1933. ...

In a private letter to his brother Karl, Anderson said,

As for Stein, I do not think her too important. I do think she had an important thing to do, not for the public, but for the artist who happens to work with words as his material.

(Mellow, 1974 at p.260)

F. W. Dupee (1990, p. IX) defines "Steinese" as "gnomic, repetitive, illogical, sparsely puncutated...a scandal and a delight, lending itself equally to derisory parody and fierce denunciation.

Though Stein influenced authors such as Ernest Hemingway and Richard Wright, as hinted above, her work has often been misunderstood. Composer Constant Lambert (1936) naively compares Stravinsky's choice of "the drabbest and least significant phrases" in L'Histoire du Soldat to Gertrude Stein's in "Helen Furr and Georgine Skeene" (1922), specifically: "[E]veryday they were gay there, they were regularly gay there everyday", of which he contends that the "effect would be equally appreciated by someone with no knowledge of English whatsoever," apparently entirely missing the pun frequently employed by Stein. For other persons of the same name, see Richard Wright. ...

James Thurber ridicules Stein saying that, James Grover Thurber (December 8, 1894–November 2, 1961) was a U.S. humorist and cartoonist. ...

(From Collecting Himself, Michael Rosen, ed.)

Selected works

Wikisource has original works written by or about:

Gertrude Stein

• Three Lives (The Grafton Press, 1909)
• Tender buttons: objects, food, rooms (1914) online version
• An Exercise in Analysis (1917)
• A Circular Play (1920)
• Geography and Plays (1922)
• The Making of Americans: The Hersland Family' (written 1906-1908, published 1934)
• Four Saints in Three Acts (libretto, 1929: music by Virgil Thomson, 1934)
• Useful Knowledge (1929)
• How to Write (1931)
• They must. Be Wedded. To Their Wife (1931)
• Operas and Plays (1932)
• The Autobiography of Alice B. Toklas (1933)
• Lectures in America (1935)
• The Geographical History of America or the Relation of Human Nature to the Human Mind (1936)
• Everybody's Autobiography (1937)
• Picasso (1938)
• Doctor Faustus Lights the Lights (1938)
• Paris France (1940)
• Ida; a novel (1941)
• Three Sisters Who Are Not Sisters (1943)
• Wars I Have Seen (1945)
• Reflections on the Atom Bomb (1946) online version
• Brewsie and Willie (1946)
• The Mother of Us All (libretto, 1946: music by Virgil Thompson 1947)
• Last Operas and Plays (1949)
• The Things as They Are (written as Q.E.D. in 1903, published 1950)
• Patriarchal Poetry (1953)
• Alphabets and Birthdays (1957)

Image File history File links Wikisource-logo. ... The original Wikisource logo. ... Three Lives (1909) was Gertrude Steins first published work. ... Four Saints in Three Acts is an opera by American composer Virgil Thomson with a libretto by Gertrude Stein. ... Virgil Thomson, photographed by Carl Van Vechten, 1947 Virgil Thomson (November 25, 1896 - September 30, 1989) was an American composer from Missouri, whose rural background gave a sense of place in his compositions. ... Alice B. Toklas, photographed by Carl Van Vechten, 1949 The Autobiography of Alice B. Toklas is a 1933 autobiography of Gertrude Stein, written by Stein as if she were Alice B. Toklas. ... Everybodys Autobiography is a book by Gertrude Stein, published in 1937. ... Doctor Faustus Lights the Lights (1938) is a libretto for an opera by the American modernist playwright and poet Gertrude Stein. ... The Mother of Us All (1947) is an opera by Virgil Thomson to a libretto by Gertrude Stein. ... Look up QED in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ...

Quotations

• "I do want to get rich, but I never want to do what there is to do to get rich."
• "A writer should write with his eyes and a painter paint with his ears".
• "Everybody gets so much information all day long that they lose their common sense".
• "Hemingway, remarks are not literature".
• "I've been rich and I've been poor. It's better to be rich".
• "America is my country, but Paris is my hometown".
• "You are all a lost generation".
• "It is extraordinary that whole populations have no projects for the future, none at all. It certainly is extraordinary, but it is certainly true".
• "A rose is a rose is a rose is a rose".
• "To write is to write is to write is to write is to write is to write is to write".
• "Out of kindness comes redness and out of rudeness comes rapid same question, out of an eye comes research, out of selection comes painful cattle".
• "There is no there there."
• "I really do not know that anything has ever been more exciting than diagramming sentences."
• "I have made it [white electric light] but have I a soul to pay for it."

The sentence Rose is a rose is a rose is a rose. ... A sentence diagram of the unusual sentence Buffalo buffalo Buffalo buffalo buffalo buffalo Buffalo buffalo. ...

Tributes

• In 2005, playwright/actor Jade Esteban Estrada portrayed Stein in the solo musical ICONS: The Lesbian and Gay History of the World, Vol. 1 at Princeton University.
• In the 2006 motion picture The Devil Wears Prada, the character Christian Thompson, played by Simon Baker, attributes the statement "America is my country, but Paris is my hometown" to Gertrude Stein.
• Famous Scottish rockers, Idlewild, released a single called Roseability in 2000 from the album 100 Broken Windows. In the song, they repeatedly say "Gertrude Stein said that's enough, I know that that's not enough now."
• The phrase 'a rose is a rose...' appears in the musical 'Singing in the Rain', when Gene Kelly is receiving elocution lessons to allow him to move from silent films to talkies. He sings it with Donald O'Connor.
• In an episode of The X-Files called "Bad Blood," the character Fox Mulder, played by David Duchovny, warns his partner, Dana Scully, played by Gillian Anderson, that if she goes to prison, "your cellmate's nickname is gonna be Large Marge, she's gonna read a lot of Gertrude Stein."
• In "La Vie Boheme", a song from the musical Rent, a toast is made to Gertrude Stein.
• The Elephant 6 band Olivia Tremor Control mentions Stein in their song "Define a Transparent Dream".
• In Anastasia (1997 film), Gertrude Stein is seen in a car singing "Where a rose is a rose!" during a musical number, "Paris Holds The Key to Your Heart".
• In The Rutles' song "Another Day," a reference to her is made: "A glass of wine with Gertrude Stein,/I know I'll never share,/but I don't mind. That's just the kind/of cross each man must bear./I'm on my way,/I cannot stay another day."
• In the Marvel comic Runaways (comic),one character is named Gertrude Yorkes while her boyfriend's name is Chase Stein.
• Loving Repeating is a musical by Stephen Flaherty based on the writings of Gertrude Stein and is unified through a 1934 speech that Stein delivered at the University of Chicago. Stein and Alice B. Toklas are both characters in the eight person show.

Jade Esteban Estrada (born September 17, 1975 at Lackland Air Force Base in San Antonio, Texas) is a successful Latin pop singer, comedian, choreographer and actor. ... The Devil Wears Prada is an Academy Award-nominated 2006 comedy-drama film, a loose screen adaptation of Lauren Weisbergers 2003 novel of the same name. ... Simon Baker (b. ... Idlewild may refer to: In films and music: Idlewild (band), a Scottish rock band Idlewild (Everything but the Girl album), a 1988 album by English band Everything But The Girl Idlewild (film), a 2006 film starring the members of hip-hop group OutKast Idlewild (OutKast album), a 2006 soundtrack album... Singin in the Rain is a song with lyrics by Arthur Freed and music by Nacio Herb Brown, published in 1929. ... For the similarly-named American actress, see Jean Kelly. ... Donald David Dixon Ronald O’Connor (August 28, 1925 – September 27, 2003) was an American dancer, singer, and actor who came to fame in a series of movies in which he co-starred alternately with Gloria Jean, Peggy Ryan, and Francis the Talking Mule. ... The X-Files is an American Peabody and Emmy Award-winning science fiction television series created by Chris Carter, which first aired on September 10, 1993, and ended on May 19, 2002. ... David William Duchovny (born August 7, 1960) is a Golden Globe Award-winning American television and film actor perhaps best known for his role as Fox Mulder on The X-Files. ... Gillian Leigh Anderson (born August 9, 1968) is an Emmy and Golden Globe Award-winning American actress, best known for her roles as FBI Agent Dana Scully in the American TV series The X-Files and Lady Dedlock in the BBC TV series Bleak House. ... La Vie Bohème (French: the Bohemian life) is a song in the musical Rent. ... Rent is a rock musical, with music and lyrics by Jonathan Larson[1] based on Giacomo Puccinis opera La bohème. ... The Elephant Six Recording Company was a musical collective founded in Athens, Georgia, USA, by Bill Doss, Will Cullen Hart (both, now formerly, of Olivia Tremor Control), Jeff Mangum (of Neutral Milk Hotel), and Robert Schneider (of the Apples in Stereo), the four of whom grew up making music in... The Olivia Tremor Control was an Athens, Georgia indie rock band in the mid- to late 1990s and, along with The Apples in Stereo and Neutral Milk Hotel, was one of the three original Elephant Six projects. ... Anastasia is an American Academy Award-nominated animated feature film produced and directed by Don Bluth and Gary Goldman at Fox Animation Studios, and was released on November 14, 1997 by Twentieth Century Fox. ... Runaways is a Marvel Comics comic book series created by Brian K. Vaughan and Adrian Alphona. ... Stephen Flaherty (born 1960) is an American composer of musical theatre in collaboration with Lynn Ahrens, and best known for the show Once On This Island, which was nominated for eight Tony Awards. ... Alice B. Toklas, photographed by Carl Van Vechten, 1949 Alice B. Toklas (April 30, 1877 – March 7, 1967) was the lover and confidante of writer Gertrude Stein. ...

References

1. ^ Alice B. Toklas Books and Writers
2. ^ Someone Says Yes to It: Gertrude Stein, Alice B. Toklas, and "The Making of the Americans"; Janet Malcolm; The New Yorker, June 13 & 20, 2005; p.148-165 see p.164 for another description that Toklas gave of Stein's last words: "What is the question and before I could speak she went on--If there is no question then there is no answer".

• Blackmer, Corrine E. "Gertrude Stein" in Summers, Claude J. (1995). The Gay and Lesbian Literary Heritage. ISBN 0805050094.
• Grahn, Judy (1989). Really Reading Gertrude Stein: A Selected Anthology with essays by Judy Grahn. Freedom, California: The Crossing Press. ISBN 0-89594-380-8.

Further reading

Primary sources

• Burns, Edward, ed., Gertrude Stein on Picasso (New York: Liveright Publishing Corp., 1970). ISBN 087140513x
• ---. The Letters of Gertrude Stein and Carl Van Vechten, 1913-1946, 2 v. (New York: Columbia University Press, 1986). ISBN 0231063083, ISBN 978-0231063081
• ---. The Letters of Gertrude Stein and Thornton Wilder, co-ed. with Ulla Dydo (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1996). ISBN 9780300067743
• ---. Staying on Alone: Letters of Alice B. Toklas (New York: Liveright, 1973). ISBN 0871405695

• Chessman, Harriet and Stimpson, Catharine R., eds. Gertrude Stein, Writings 1903-1932 (Library of America, 1998). ISBN 978-1-88301140-6
• ---. Gertrude Stein, Writings 1932-1946 (Library of America, 1998). ISBN 978-1-88301141-3
• Grahn, Judy, ed. Really Reading Gertrude Stein: A Selected Anthology with Essays by Judy Grahn (Crossing Press, 1989). ISBN 0895943808
• Stein, Gertrude. 1922. Geography and Plays. Mineola, NY: Dover, 1999. ISBN 048640874
• ---. 1932. Operas and Plays. Barrytown NY: Station Hill Arts, 1998. ISBN 1886449163
• ---. 1934. Portraits and Prayers. New York: Random House, 1934. ISBN-13: 9781135761981 ISBN: 113576198
• ---. 1946. Gertrude Stein on Picasso (London, B.T. Batsford, Ltd. (1946) ISBN 978-0871405135, ISBN 087140513X
• ---. 1949. Last Operas and Plays. Ed. Carl van Vechten. Baltimore and London: The John Hopkins University Press, 1995. ISBN 0801849853
• Vechten, Carl Van, ed. (1990). Selected Writings of Gertrude Stein. ISBN 0679724648

Volumes in the Library of America series The Library of America (LoA) is a nonprofit publisher of classic American literature. ... Volumes in the Library of America series The Library of America (LoA) is a nonprofit publisher of classic American literature. ...

Secondary sources

• Behrens, Roy R. COOK BOOK: Gertrude Stein, William Cook and Le Corbusier. Dysart, Iowa: Bobolink Books, 2005; ISBN 0-9713244-1-7.
• Bowers, Jane Palatini. 1991. "They Watch Me as They Watch This":Gertrude Stein's Metadrama. Philadelphia: University of Pennstlvania Press. ISBN 0812230574.
• Hobhouse, Janet. Everybody Who Was Anybody: A Biography of Gertrude Stein New York: G. P. Putnam's Sons, 1975. ISBN-13: 9781199832993.
• Kellner, Bruce, ed. A Gertrude Stein Companion: Content with the Example. New York, Westport, Connecticut, London: Greenwood Press, 1988. ISBN 0313250782.
• Malcolm, Janet. Two Lives: Gertrude and Alice, London: Yale University Press, 2007. ISBN 9780300125511
• Malcom, Janet. Gertrude Stein's War, The New Yorker, June 2, 2003, p. 58-81
• ---. Strangers in Paradise, The New Yorker, November 13, 2006, p.54-61.
• Mellow, James R. Charmed Circle: Gertrude Stein & Company. New York, Washington: Praeger Publishers, 1974. ISBN 0395479827
• Perelman, Bob. The Trouble with Genius: Reading Pound, Joyce, Stein, and Zukofsky. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press, 1994.
• The Museum of Modern Art, New York, Four Americans in Paris: The Collections of Gertrude Stein and Her Family. New York: The Museum of Modern Art, 1970. ISBN 078100674.
• Ryan, Betsy Alayne. 1984. Gertrude Stein's Theatre of the Absolute. Theater and Dramatic Studies Ser., 21. Ann Arbor and London: UMI Research Press. ISBN 0835720217.
• Renate Stendhal, ed., Gertrude Stein In Words and Pictures: A Photobiography. Chapel Hill: Algonquin Books of Chapel Hill, 1989. ISBN-10: 0945575998; ISBN-13: 978-0945575993.
• Truong, Monique. The book of salt, Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company, 2003. A novel about a young Vietnamese cook who worked in Stein's Montparnasse-household.

Bob Perelman is an American poet, critic, editor and teacher. ...

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to:

Gertrude Stein

Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to:

Gertrude Stein

• Allegheny City (Deutschtown), Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania Birth Placard

• Photographic portraits of Gertrude Stein, by Carl Van Vechten, in the public domain

• A letter by Alice relating Gertrude's thoughts about Pittsburgh

• The World of Gertrude Stein, extensive biography site

• Photo Gallery (type "Gertrude Stein" as the search string)

• Gertrude Stein Links

• The Work of Gertrude Stein by William Carlos Williams

• Works by Gertrude Stein at Project Gutenberg

• Interview with Paul Bowles on Gertrude Stein
• Gay Great

Image File history File links Commons-logo. ... Image File history File links This is a lossless scalable vector image. ... Wikiquote is one of a family of wiki-based projects run by the Wikimedia Foundation, running on MediaWiki software. ... The public domain comprises the body of all creative works and other knowledge—writing, artwork, music, science, inventions, and others—in which no person or organization has any proprietary interest. ... William Carlos Williams Dr. William Carlos Williams (sometimes known as WCW) (September 17, 1883 – March 4, 1963), was an American poet closely associated with modernism and Imagism. ... Project Gutenberg, abbreviated as PG, is a volunteer effort to digitize, archive and distribute cultural works. ...

Listening

• UbuWeb: Gertrude Stein featuring a reading of If I Told Him, A Completed Portrait of Picasso and A Valentine to Sherwood Anderson.

• Art of the States: Becoming Becoming Gertrude Text-sound piece featuring excerpt from The Making of Americans.