Writings 1903–1932

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

Breaking decisively with all previous literary traditions and grammatical norms, Gertrude Stein forged a unique idiom—abstract and down-to-earth, playful and subversive, philosophical and erotic by turns—which influenced writers as varied as Ernest Hemingway, William Carlos Williams, Thornton Wilder, and John Ashbery. This Library of America volume, along with its companion, surveys a literary trajectory that from the beginning of the 20th century to the end of World War II marked her as a fearless and uncompromising experimenter. She was also a master of anecdote and aphorism, many of whose phrases—from “rose is a rose is a rose” to “there is no there there” and “when this you see remember me”—have passed into the language.

This first volume, containing works written between 1903 and 1932, takes Stein from her first, more traditional fictional works to the exuberant and astonishing experiments of the early Paris years. She was a devoted student of William James, with whom she studied psychology at Radcliffe in the 1890s, and took an early interest in memory and the function of repetition in human character. In her early works, she sought a new kind of realism exemplified here by Q.E.D. (written 1903, published posthumously), a novel about lesbian entanglements at college, and the modern classic Three Lives (1909), a set of novellas about the lives of three ordinary women, described in the simplest and most direct of prose.

In her brilliant abstract “portraits” Stein uses an extraordinary array of verbal techniques to evoke those friends and collaborators—Matisse, Picasso, Apollinaire, Juan Gris, Satie, Mabel Dodge, Carl Van Vechten, Sherwood Anderson, Virgil Thomson—with whom she shared decades of revolutionary ferment in the arts. Her play Four Saints in Three Acts (1927), which became the basis for an opera by Virgil Thomson, is written for a freewheeling theater of the mind where everything becomes possible. In “Lifting Belly” and other works she joyously celebrates her lifelong relationship with Alice B. Toklas, one of the most famous domestic partnerships of that century. The Autobiography of Alice B. Toklas (1933), Stein’s oblique and playful memoir, became an immediate bestseller and sealed Stein’s international celebrity.

Genres: Fiction, Poetry, Literature, Classics, Novels, LGBT, American

941 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

[Ben · Rating 5 out of 5]

Most important writer of the twentieth century?

The young often when they have learnt all they can learn accuse her of an inordinate pride. She says yes of course. She realises that in english literature in her time she is the only one. She has always known it and now she says it.

-- Autobiography of Alice B. Toklas



Have it as having having it as happening, happening to have it as having, having to have it as happening. Happening and have it as happening and having it happen as happening and having to have it happen as happening, and my wife has a cow as now, my wife having a cow as now, my wife having a cow as now and having a cow as now and having a cow and having a cow now, my wife has a cow and now. My wife has a cow.

-- A Book Concluding With As a Wife Has a Cow A Love Story

[Keith · Rating 3 out of 5]

Tender Buttons *** - With Tender Buttons, one is prone to contradiction. My first impression (or second, as this is the second time I’ve read this), is that Stein objectifies words – plucking from or distorting meaning – so that the reader is only left with the aural stalk – the sound and rhythm of the word or phrase. The syntax is recognizably English – but the pieces conflict (i.e., battle) with each other over meaning.

Of course, having just said the poems distort meaning, the next obvious observation is about the meaningfulness of some of the lines. But this isn’t completely contradictory. Words, in any context (or out of any context) convey meaning. They are such a deep part of us and our understanding the world and ourselves that we can’t help but read into everything.

So despite her best efforts, one can find meaning and beautiful lines in this small book.

“Supposing that the case contained rose-wood and a color. Supposing that there was no reason for a distress and more likely for a number, supposing that there was no astonishment, is it not necessary to mingle astonishment.” (p. 315)

“Considering everything and which way the turn is tending, considering everything why is there no restraint, considering everything what makes the place settle and the plate distinguish some specialties. The whole thing is not understood and this is not strange considering that there is no education, this is not strange because having that certainly does show the difference in cutting, it shows that when there is turning there is no distress.” (p. 328)

“There is no use there is no use at all in smell, in taste, in teeth, in toast, in anything, there is no use at all and the respect is mutual.” (p. 329)

“A sound, a whole sound is not separation, a whole sound is in an order.” (p. 329)

"Claiming nothing, not claiming anything, not a claim in everything, collecting claiming, all this makes a harmony, it even makes a succession." (p. 330)

“A sign is the specimen spoken.” (p. 332)

(Would the author say that these suggestive phrases are failures for the very reason that they suggest expression or communication? Are these, then, worst lines in the work?)

These kinds of decontextualized interpretations are the basis of much avant garde poetry even today. The accidental meaning, the indirect statement, the breaking down of syntax, meaning and form are the grounding on which many new schools of writing have been formed (and continue to be formed).

But it’s not my thing.

[Paola]

- Q.E.D.
- Three Lives
- Portraits and Other Short Works:
* Ada
* Matisse
* Picasso
* Orta or One Dancing
* Flirting at the Bon Marche
* Miss Furr and Miss Skeene
* Tender Buttons
* Portrait of Mabel Dodge at the Villa Curonia
* One. Carl Van Vechten
* Susie Asado
* Yet Dish
* Americans
* In the Grass (On Spain)
* Guillaume Apollinaire
* Preciosilla
* Sacred Emily
* Turkey and Bones and Eating and We Liked It
* Lifting Belly
* Marry Nettie
* Accents in Alsace
* A Movie
* Idem the Same. A Valentine to Sherwood Anderson
* An Instant Answer or a Hundred Prominent Men
* Erik Satie
* Cezanne
* A Book Concluding With As a Wife Has a Cow A Love Story
* Van or Twenty Years After
* If I Told Him
* Geography
* The Difference Between the Inhabitants of France and the Inhabitants of the United States of America
* Composition as Explanation
* An Acquaintance with Description
* The Life of Juan Gris; The Life and Death of Juan Gris
* Patriarchal Poetry
* Four Saints in Three Acts
* Virgil Thomson
- The Autobiography of Alice B. Toklas

[Spencer Rich · Rating 2 out of 5]

Well--she's about as annoying as Ayn Rand seems to think she is, but she's nowhere near as annoying as Ayn Rand.

[Merzbau · Rating 4 out of 5]

Q.E.D. = 1/2 star
Three Lives = read separately
Portraits and Other Short Works = 4 stars
The Autobiography of Alice B. Toklas = read separately

i couldn't stand Q.E.D. but for some reason i forced myself to finish it.

Portraits and Other Short works is a collection of short (anywhere from 1 to 40+ pages) works written between 1910 and 1928. i had trouble getting into it at first but then i started to realize that even though the words may be complete nonsense most of the time they formed a rhythm that could be compared to various types of music. from slow repetitive sections reminiscent of doom or drone to bombastic tumblings of syllables that could be likened to jazz or even grindcore. Philip Glass came to mind a lot as well. once i started thinking of the pieces in terms of music it made them a lot more enjoyable to read. still didn't help make them make sense though.

[Shawn · Rating 3 out of 5]

I have to admit that I haven't read this volume in toto, BUT, I think all detractors of Stein and her "Tender Buttons" should give her short (10ish page) work "Orta or one Dancing" a read through, especially if they're of the opinion that Ms. Stein can't sing. The rhythm of this poem is mesmerizing and her use of repetition, as well as signifier slippage to engender the sense of dance in the dear reader is mighty fine.

[Nathan · Rating 3 out of 5]

Someone had to do it. Why not her?

[Martin Bihl · Rating 2 out of 5]

Q.E.D - finished 11.08.25

[Bradluen · Rating 5 out of 5]

Top ten:

1. Idem the Same. A Valentine to Sherwood Anderson
2. Melanctha
3. Lifting Belly
4. An Instant Answer or A Hundred Prominent Men
5. The Good Anna
6. The Autobiography of Alice B. Toklas
7. A Book Concluding With As a Wife Has a Cow: A Love Story
8. Q.E.D.
9. Yet Dish
10. Orta or One Dancing