Gertrude Stein: Selections

Poets for the Millennium

by Gertrude Stein

This selection of Gertrude Stein's work is taken from the period between 1905 and 1936, when the iconic modernist poet was engaged in an astounding number of still-surprising literary experiments, whose innovations continue to influence all the arts. Editor Joan Retallack has chosen complete texts or selections that lend themselves to a clarified vision of Stein's oeuvre. In her brilliant introduction, Retallack provides the historical and biographical context for Stein's lifelong project of composing a "continuous present," an effort which parallels many of the most important technological and scientific developments of her era―from moving pictures to Einstein's revision of our understanding of space and time. Retallack also addresses persistent questions about Stein's work and the best way to read it in our contemporary moment. In suggesting a performative "reading poesis" for these works, Retallack follows Stein's dictum by arguing that to actively experience the work is to enjoy it, and to enjoy it is to understand it.

Genres: Poetry, Academic

347 pages, Paperback

First published March 15, 2008

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

[Guttersnipe Das · Rating 5 out of 5]

First: this book costs a fortune. And I am a church mouse, as well as bibliophile. I spent months deciding whether to buy it. If you are in the same boat, I offer my condolences, but I promise you -- it’s worth it.

As an object, this book is divine : paper, typeface, photos, selection, introduction, and supplementary information. Impeccable. That matters a lot. Many volumes of Stein seem to be created on the assumption that, since you’re not going to read them anyway, quality doesn’t matter. So this book is so important, necessary, like the Yale editions of “Ida A Novel” and “Stanzas In Meditation”, also dear to my heart. Stein’s work is challenging enough -- you cannot also be squinting at a smudged and ant-like typeface. Give yourself a fighting chance!

Joan Retallack’s introduction, more than 70 pages long, is both helpful and convincing. So convincing, in fact, that I hope you do NOT read it until after the selected texts, because who, after reading her irreproachable opinions, would dare concoct their own? Wait: there’s a caveat. If I were a professor, saints preserve us, I’d ask the students to read the section “How Abstract It Is”, before reading Stein’s texts, because there are tools about how to read Stein’s work, above all, “the necessity to discipline the eye to work like the ear”. It took me years to learn to do that -- and I didn’t realize I had done it until Retallack told me.

Stein’s body of work is vast -- isn’t it something in excess of 10,000 pages? Therefore it’s a relief when she admits it is NOT all of equal value, equal importance. Considering that life is short and uncertain, 5 pages of “The Making of Americans”, rather than the full 812, might well be sufficient. Phew.

On the other hand, I hope readers will seek all of “Tender Buttons” and “How to Write”, both so rewarding to read in full. The famous “Autobiography of Alice B. Toklas” is not excerpted here, nor its chatty, catty, uneven, and delightful sequel, “Everybody’s Autobiography.” Nothing is here either from “Ida A Novel”, my very favorite Stein, and you must read the Yale University Press version, edited by Logan Esdale.

If you find yourself in love with Stein, if you have become devoted, keep in mind that just as a shaman must go into the wilderness with neither food or water, and aspiring lamas must spend 3 years in a cave, you have not received “the full transmission” until you read every word of “Stanzas in Meditation” -- just a few pages of which appear here. (It doesn’t get any less beautiful. Or impossible.)

Buy the book. It’s worth it. It’s not expensive if you accept that it’s going to require every lucid hour you can spare for weeks to properly read it. . . Just over 200 pages of Stein’s own texts are presented here, but still a whole world, an abundant education.

Then, the next time you are feeling wild, and reckless, ready to splash out and purchase outrageously expensive paperbacks, invest in “Maria Sabina: Selections”, also part of the “Poets for the Millenium” series, and likewise impeccable. (As for the rest of the series, I don’t know yet -- I’m saving up.)

[Vlad Vaslyn · Rating 2 out of 5]

Some of her more experimental work lacks coherence without the proper context, which is difficult to determine outside of scholarly literary circles, or with a certain amount of research.

[Kateřina · Rating 2 out of 5]

I was very disappointed by this. I was expecting much more after Tender Buttons. But I found that Stein's work as a whole lacks something essential - coherency? sense? theme? I can't put my finger on it, I like experimental literarure but this was not my cup of book.

[Sue · Rating 1 out of 5]

I only read "Sacred Emily".
I didn't understand this poem. It just seemed like a jumble of words.

[Molly Lane · Rating 3 out of 5]

Melanctha when I catch you...

[C.A. · Rating 5 out of 5]

if you're in Philadelphia January 3rd, 2010: GETRUDE STEIN in the Picasso Room for the next URCHIN SERIES EVENT, details here: http://UrchinPoetry.blogspot.com


CAConrad
http://CAConrad.blogspot.com

[Timothy · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent

[Noel Fagerhaugh]

genius

[Scott]

I've just gotten into the actual texts, but the introduction was more than informative. I quite like this book, and have yet to throw it across the room in a confused and Gertrude-saturated rage.

[david · Rating 5 out of 5]

amazing.

[C · Rating 3 out of 5]

I v. much prefer reading about Stein than reading Stein herself -- thankfully, this book has a great introduction.