Gertrude Stein: Writings 1932–1946

by Gertrude Stein, Catharine R. Stimpson (Editor), Harriet Chessman (Editor)

This Library of America volume, along with its companion, presents a full-scale gathering of the achievement of Gertrude Stein, the most radical innovator in 20th-century literature. With her fresh, irreverent approach to syntax and meaning itself, she proposed nothing less than a reinvention of language from the ground up. From her home in Paris she conducted the most famous salon of modern times, tirelessly promoting modernism in all the arts and holding court for an audience that included the foremost creative figures of her day.

This second volume includes works written between 1932 and her death in 1946, years in which she gained a wider readership and made a triumphant return to the United States as a lecturer, but chose ultimately to remain in France during World War II. It opens with the poetic sequence Stanzas in Meditation (complete text published posthumously in 1946), perhaps Stein’s most austere and rigorous experiment in linguistic abstraction. In Lectures in America (1935) and The Geographical History of America (1936), she made the most of her newfound status as a public figure, exploring with brilliance and humor the philosophical implications of her writings, the difference between English and American literature, the importance of space in American culture, and much else. Picasso (1938) is a book-length study of the painter who was one of her closest associates, and whose work was a lifelong inspiration for her.

Stein’s playfulness is given full scope in the children’s book The World is Round (1939) and in Ida (1941), an enchanting exercise in pure verbal invention. The plays Doctor Faustus Lights the Lights (written 1938, published 1949) and The Mother of Us All (1947), inspired by the life of women’s rights activist Susan B. Anthony, give new twists to legendary and historical figures, while “Three Sisters Who Are Not Sisters” (1946) pays tribute to the melodramas that delighted Stein in her childhood. In her last major work, Brewsie and Willie (1946), a striking stylistic departure, she pays homage to the American soldiers she came to know after the liberation of France with a remarkable evocation of their speech and aspirations.

Genres: Poetry, Literature, Fiction, Essays

844 pages, Hardcover

First published March 1, 1998

About the author

Gertrude Stein was an American writer who spent most of her life in France, and who became a catalyst in the development of modern art and literature. 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 well-known members of the avant garde artistic and literary world of her time.

Reviews

[Paola]

- Stanzas in Meditation p. 1
- Henry James p. 147
- Lectures in America:
* What is English Literature p. 195
* Pictures p. 224
* Plays p. 244
* The Gradual Making of _The Making of Americans_ p. 270
* Portraits and Repetition p. 287
* Poetry and Grammar p. 313
- Narration:
* Lecture 3 p. 339
- What are Master-pieces and Why Are There So Few of Them p. 355
- The Geographical History of America or The Relation of Human Nature to the Human Mind p. 367
- What Does She See When Sehe Shuts Her Eyes (A Novel) p. 491
- Picasso p. 497
- The World is Round p. 537
- Doctor Faustus Lights the Lights p. 577
- Ida p. 611
- Three Sisters Who Are Not Sisters (A Melodrama) p. 707
- Brewsie and Willie p. 715
- The Mother of Us All p. 781
- Reflection on the Atomic Bomb p. 823

[Craig Flanagin · Rating 5 out of 5]

a great introduction to stein; but dont feel you have to start at the beginning and read through it. in fact, don't even feel you have to read the whole thing. skip through until your attention lands, then dig in to whatever's caught your eye. (or I should say caught your ear, because everything here is about tone of voice.) if you want "storytelling", start with brewsie and willie, or Ida, or for advanced readers, dr faustus lights the lights...

[Kit · Rating 4 out of 5]

dr. faustus lights the lights is, sigh, sublime. totally needs to be read aloud.

[Keith · Rating 3 out of 5]

The Mother of Us All *** -- This collage about Susan B. Anthony was made into an opera by Virgil Thomson, appearing after Stein’s death. In many ways, as this book notes, the play conflates the life story of Anthony with the life story of Stein. It is a strange cacophony of characters and voices which appear centered on the sacrifices required to nurture a revolution. It is a heady mix of 20th century Modernism, so it is for a limited audience. (9/21)

[Susanna · Rating 3 out of 5]

Stein is hard to insult but easy to hate, but I can't really do either very well. She's the opposite of what I like: form, patterns, structure, the fate of the world hinging on a word. She's incoherent (mostly) and, yes I mean this and I will defend it, a megalomaniac. I finished a brutal Stein seminar this Fall, and I can't imagine myself cracking open these books anytime soon, but I'm glad I met her.

Reading Stein changes the whole world. Music sounds different. The sky looks different. Things open up. I wrote differently when I was reading Stein. Writing a sentence was much less complicated than it should have been.

If for some god-awful reason you need a comprehensive Stein anthology, these editions would be hard to beat. They're edited by two awesome Stein scholars and have a very good sampling of a wide variety of her work, as well as interesting "notes on the texts," and an extensive chronology of Stein's life (SUPER-relevant to her work).

Actually, it might not be god-awful to need a comprehensive Stein anthology.

And for the love of all things good and lovely, STEIN NEVER SAID "It takes a heap of loafing to write a book."

She said, "It takes a lot of time to be a genius, you have to sit around so much doing nothing, really doing nothing."