A Stein Reader

by Gertrude Stein, Ulla E. Dydo (Editor)

This important collection presents Gertrude Stein for the first time in her brilliant modernity. Ulla E. Dydo's textual scholarship demonstrates Stein's constant questioning of convention, and A Stein Reader changes the balance of work in print, concentrating on Stein's experimental work and including many key works that are virtually unknown or unavailable.A Stein Reader includes unpublished work, such as the portrait "Article"; shows the astonishing stylistic change in the neglected "A Long Gay Book"; draws attention to the many unknown plays such as "Reread Another;" and offers fascinating portraits of Matisse, Picasso, and Sitwell. Illuminating headnotes bring out connections between pieces and provide invaluable keys to Stein's motifs and thought patterns.

Genres: Poetry, Literature, Short Stories, Fiction

624 pages, Hardcover

First published October 15, 1993

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

[mark mendoza · Rating 5 out of 5]

Far more satisfying than the Selected Writings (which leaves out so much innovative work), and a better, corrected version of texts in the Yale edition, with some delightful additions and substitutions (e.g. the erotic 'Pink Melon Joy' for 'Lifting Belly'). THIS is the one Stein book you'll need to ground yourself with before you start abounding in the individual texts.

[Julene · Rating 2 out of 5]

I read parts of this while taking a class on Gertrude Stein. The class combined reading her writings and writing from the readings based on exercises given. She was not easy for me to read, so it was good to have structure. I found her writing opened doors to explore my own work, which would be inaccessible if not for the meld evoked by the class.

[Camille]

I love this.