Gertrude Stein: An Afterlife

by Francesca Wade

'Strikingly accomplished . . . utterly compelling.' SUNDAY TIMES
'A masterpiece of biography.' TELEGRAPH
'A total joy to read.' SARAH BAKEWELL
'I feel like I've been waiting for this book my whole life.' SHEILA HETI

From the celebrated author of Square Haunting comes a biography as unconventional and surprising as the life it tells.

'Think of the Bible and Homer, think of Shakespeare and think of me,' wrote Gertrude Stein in 1936. Admirers called her a genius, sceptics a she remains one of the most confounding - and contested - writers of the twentieth century.

In this literary detective story, Francesca Wade delves into the creation of the Stein myth. We see her posing for Picasso's portrait; at the centre of Bohemian Parisian life hosting the likes of Matisse and Hemingway; racing through the French countryside with her enigmatic companion Alice B. Toklas; dazzling American crowds on her sell-out tour for her sensational Autobiography - a veritable celebrity.

Yet Stein hoped to be remembered not for her personality but for her work. From her deathbed, she charged her partner with securing her place in literary history. How would her legend shift once it was Toklas's turn to tell the stories - especially when uncomfortable aspects of their past emerged from the archive? Using astonishing never-before-seen material, Wade uncovers the origins of Stein's radical writing, and reveals new depths to the storied relationship which made it possible.

This is Gertrude Stein as she was when nobody was captivating, complex and human.

Genres: Biography, Nonfiction, History, LGBT, Queer, France, Literary Criticism

Audible Audio

Published May 20, 2025

About the author

Francesca Wade has written for publications including the London Review of Books, The Times Literary Supplement, the Financial Times, the New Statesman, and Prospect. She is editor of The White Review and a winner of the Biographers’ Club Tony Lothian Prize. She lives in London.

Reviews

[Maddie]

AHHHH I just got an early copy in the mail!!! Thank you so very much to the publisher!!!

Sapphics with a special interest in lesbian history, rejoice!

[Hannah Jung · Rating 5 out of 5]

Stein was the most important modernist woman writing in the first half of the twentieth century. Her experimental poetry, prose and plays, as well as her extensive notebooks and letters, have been studied ever since.

She moved to Paris in her twenties, wanting to change the world. She became friends with Picasso, building up a significant collection of his work, and was a central part of the modernist and cubist artistic movement.

She was often marginalised as a modernist writer, facing misogyny and antisemitism. Contemporary writers such as Fitzgerald, Hemingway and Joyce were frustratingly lauded ahead of her. However, she was very much aware of her own genius and knew she was ahead of her time - not just in her writing but in her personal life.

Now seen as a lesbian icon, the love story of her relationship with Alice B. Toklas is central to the book. She pushed gender boundaries and what it meant to be a woman. Alice was devoted to her, as a wife and secretary, making Stein’s work possible.

The section of the book describing the Second World War in France was truly moving, as was the depiction of Alice’s life as she outlived Gertrude by twenty years.

The author questions the art of biography and the inseparability of art and life. In Stein’s case her personality is very much inextricable from her work. She is an absolutely fascinating and complex character, who would be thrilled at the legacy she has left. This is an incredibly intelligent, cleverly constructed and highly readable biography.

[Sofia Bagdade · Rating 3 out of 5]

A comprehensive & well-researched biography exploring Stein’s lifelong commitment to art. The second half seemed to drag on and detracted focus from the intimate analysis laid out in the first half. I felt I bobbed in & out of interest, even though I wanted to feel invested in this

Personal Favorites:

“Her mind was dreaming up a cosmic map of humanity with every kind of person she had ever met represented written in a style which reflected her sense that everyone is always repeating”

“Sex and writing moved into one joyful act of creation”

[Dawn · Rating 4 out of 5]

Compared with classic biographies that march from cradle to grave and tack on a legacy chapter at the end, Wade puts the politics of memory right at the center: who controls the archive, whose versions endure, and how Stein’s image gets weaponized, defended, or dismissed across different eras. That means the book’s “subject” is almost equally Stein, Toklas, and the biographical-industrial complex that orbits them.

Most pointedly, Wade reframes Janet Malcolm’s Two Lives, a great book but one that pins Stein with Nazi sympathy during World War II. Afterlife keeps the indictment on the table but refuses to let it eclipse everything else. Wade zeroes in on how biographers, Malcolm included, have shaped Stein’s afterlife and what their lenses obscure about the writing itself.

Afterlife also draws on the Katz interviews and new archival finds—unpublished love letters, notebooks—that tweak details of Stein’s early Paris years and the evolution of her style. These don’t upend major facts, but they add real texture to how Stein’s radical writing practice grew out of her relationships and collecting.

Wade argues that Stein is “less a writer in the conventional sense than a philosopher of language,” and that treating her texts as codes to crack (or clues for a moral verdict) misses their exploratory, processual qualities. I do agree that Stein is a writer to read for pleasure—it’s not a mountain to climb. Stein’s writing experiments are continuous with her love of talk, gossip, jokes, and domestic life with Toklas. They’re sweets to be savored, juicy and new and never ever ever boring.

[rnhreads · Rating 5 out of 5]

a triumph - fascinating, structurally delicious, entirely readable. i have never raced through a biography with more joy. i stayed up til 6 am feeling very much like i was in Paris with Stein and Toklas, like my life paused to make room for me to inhabit this thoroughly enjoyable reading experience. i love tender buttons and i love this biography and i love love love gertrude stein

[L & J Ross · Rating 5 out of 5]

A fascinating, thoughtful and well written biography of the very complex and complicated poet, playwright and author, Gertrude Stein. The biography is well laid out, beginning with her early life and culminating in what transpired after her death at age 72. The book details not only the complicated relationship with her long time companion and lover, Alice, but also her early relationship with various close female friends, artists such as Picasso, her life in France, her support for various French public officials who were later found to be Nazi collaborators, among others. The book includes a detailed index as well as source notes.
My thanks to the author and publishers and Goodreads for providing an ARC in exchange for my honest review.

[Nicholas During · Rating 5 out of 5]

The best biography I've read. A fascinating story; beautifully formed and executed; and clearly meticulously researched—this book goes a long way to reaffirming Stein's role in the artistic canon, but it's also just a lot of fun to read.

[David · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent book. Very important for those with an interest in Gertrude Stein, and a fine introduction for those who might be curious to know about her life (part one) and what the author calls her "afterlife" (part two) -- that is, how her work was preserved until it could be rediscovered and championed by new generations of readers, scholars, and artists across genres (drama, poetry) and disciplines (music, dance, visual and performance arts).

For years, I had read about Leon Katz, who interviewed Alice Toklas after Stein's death, and was supposedly working on a book that would have big revelations. He died in 2017 without ever publishing his book, but this author has gone into the archives to report on his work, and it is fascinating. Beyond that, she seems to have gone to every possible archive that has Stein and Stein-related material, so in just 384 pages she has given us a very thorough account full of powerful insights as well as information I never knew until now, despite my obsessive reading of all things Stein and Toklas that I could get my hands on. If you are an obsessive Stein nut like me, you might enjoy the first part, but you will really enjoy the second part, which goes into how Stein's work was safeguarded and then discovered and championed by new generations. It's just lovely stuff! Highly recommended!

P.S. Due to sexism, there are many who don't appreciate Stein's genius, but this book makes me happy because it shows how many people have recognized her importance and been inspired to do their own great work thanks to Stein paving the way. This book also makes clear how essential Toklas was to Stein's work, and chronicles the sacrifices she made to ensure Stein's work would eventually find its audience.

[Scout Riches · Rating 3 out of 5]

Freak

[♪ Kim N · Rating 3 out of 5]

Written for those already familiar with Stein's work and her Paris salon at 27 rue de Fleurus. The two parts, Life and Afterlife, contrast the way in which Stein presented herself to the world versus what was pieced together after her death from unpublished writings, private notes and the extensive interviews conducted with Alice B. Toklas by Leon Katz of Yale University. The personal details were interesting for sure, but considering Stein's lifelong pursuit of artistic recognition, it would have been nice to have more discussion of her work, more examples illustrating what made her approach both controversial and revolutionary. How is Stein's work viewed today? Can her genius be described in a way that's understandable to most people?

Whenever you get there, there is no there there.
Unfortunately, still pretty much where I am after reading this biography.

[Trina · Rating 4 out of 5]

If you’re interested in Gertrude Stein, her writing and her life in France with Toklas, and especially if you’re interested in recent scholars’ take on Stein, this is fascinating.

[Carrie · Rating 3 out of 5]

I found this interesting enough, though I wouldn't recommend it. I had no direct knowledge of Stein's writings which are (obviously) referred to quite often, so it would've been helpful to have had some examples and excerpts included in this otherwise very long biography about her and her work. Examples of Toklas' work would have been helpful, as well. Without it there was no source of reference to what the author was saying. Disappointing, yet still well researched and written.

[Sydney · Rating 4 out of 5]

Thanks to NetGalley and Scribner for the eARC!

This was such a well done biography. I learned so much about Stein! I remember reading my first Stein book for my Theory class in grad school. I didn't get it. I'm still not sure I get it. But I understand her process now.
I almost feel like this was a biography of both Gertrude Stein and Alice Toklas. Which, in general, makes sense because they were so entwined in life.
I also like that Wade didn't shy away from the less glamorous aspects of Stein's life (even the rumors).
Wade definitely made me want to try Gertrude Stein's writing again!

[Dan · Rating 4 out of 5]

My thanks to NetGalley and Scribner for an advance copy of this book that serves as both a biography and a literary investigation into an author, their life, the life they created, and the persona they presented to the world, a persona even furthered after death.

In college I took a class in experimental literature with a professor who at the time I thought was a little bit of a jerk. Looking back I realize he had tenure, and will some would say he didn't care about teaching, I now know he didn't have to. The lectures were the same as they were the year before, probably hadn't changed since the college had removed the paddling board for unruly students. I wish I could say I noticed the lack of women, even minorities in the syllabus, but I was unaware of the world in many ways. One young woman did ask and began a discussion on Gertrude Stein, teaching me more in her five minutes than I learned that semester. Probably my whole academic career. I also learned a salon is far different from a place where one gets their hair fashioned, and while there is a lot of alcohol, is not a saloon. Years later at a book sale I cam across a boxed set of Gertrude Stein from Australia. The price, and the uniqueness, cheap and really a nice book collection, made me pick it up, and I am so glad. The work was everything the woman from my class said, different, ahead of its time, familiar in some cases, but always unique. Just like Stein, herself, which is captured perfectly in this book. Gertrude Stein: An Afterlife by Francesca Wade is not only a biography but a forensic study of a person who crafted much of her public persona, ably assisted by her wife and companion, with an aim at posterity, creating works that still seem fresh, new and different today.

The book begins with a look at young Gertrude, and her family. Stein was a precocious child, one that loved learning, but learning on her own terms. Stein was attached to her brother as both a companion and a competitor, traveling East where he went to school, and going to college herself with an interest in psychology. This idea petered out, by Europe was calling, spending time with her brother, and more by herself living in England and reading all the great books she could find in the libraries. Paris was next, sharing a room again with her brother, investing in art, and opening her house up to the creative people that filled the city. Stein posed for a young Picasso, feed a young Ernest Hemingway collected early art works, and inspired movements. All this time Stein was writing, dealing with the lack of attention a woman in any arts has, dealing with World Wars, and finding love for the first time with Alice B. Toklas, her companion, her wife, and her image maker after Stein died.

I can go one, but the book is so good that even people familiar with the life of Stein will be riveted. Wade is a very good author, empathetic to her subject, but not beholden. Stein is called out on many things, her ways to just end relationships, a bit of problems with the truth, et al. Wade is also a very good researcher finding lost works in old achieves, digging through papers tucked away, and revealing quite a lot about the Stein, and Toklas. Stein was an early influencer, creating art movements, brining authors to the forefront, and more importantly pushing her own brand to the populace. Wade really has created a fascinating book that tells so much about a character who really should be more celebrated. A book that revealed so much on each page.

Those familiar with Stein will enjoy this, and those new to Stein will have a lot of reading to do later. I know I am going to have to find that collection I bought so many years ago, and look through it again. I know I am going to enjoy it. This was my first book by Francesca Wade, I will have to read more.

[Jeff]

As a huge fan of Stein’s writing, I have read many books about her life. As Francesca Wade notes, Some of these are hagiographies, intended to paint her as a genius, and basically ignoring her flaws. Stein has also had plenty of detractors, both during and after her lifetime. Wade manages to find a successful middle ground, praising Stein’s achievements while simultaneously facing her numerous problems head on. Considering that Stein’s fame grew considerably after her death, partly because so little of her work was available in print during her lifetime, and partly because the rise of an open LGBTQ community celebrated her for both giving voice to lesbian erotica and for her long relationship with Alice B. Toklas. Wade therefore divides her study into two parts, the story of Stein’s life, and then an account of her rise to fame after her death. Since I already know so much about Stein and her various circles (having read her work and about her for a very long time), I don’t know if the Stein novice should begin with Wade, but I think this may be the best overall assessment of Stein and her influences available. Depending on the reader’s interest, they might prefer to start with something like “Charmed Circle” or “Gertrude Stein in Pieces” but Wade has read both of those, and includes their insights in her book. So having just said this book may be the best overall book about Stein, let me nitpick two tiny details, which jumped out because Wade gets most everything else right. On p. 324, Wade speaks of “a nostalgic pianola” playing the Ballet mechanique of George Anteuil. His name is George Antheil, and nobody who has actually heard the percussive, dissonant hammering of his Ballet mechanique would ever describe it as “nostalgic.” The other oops comes in Wade’s discussion of Something Else press, which helped bring Stein’s work to a broader audience in the 1960s. Wade calls Dick Higgins a “mustached filmmaker,” which seems to me a slightly condescending characterization of one of the mid-century’s most protean and interdisciplinary artists. She might have called him a composer, an author, a book artist, a playwright, a polymath, or any number of more accurate designations. I own a first edition of the Something Else press edition of Stein’s The Making of Americans, so call me protective. “Filmmaker” is about the last thing I would call Dick Higgins. Other than these two small lapses, Wade’s book has the most “there” of any Stein study around.

[R Davies · Rating 5 out of 5]

A delightfully well written biography that celebrates the lives of Stein and also Toklas, even if the latter would presumably loathe such attention. Set out in two parts, the first part draws out Stein's life, and her development as a writer, as well as her battles to be recognised as a writer in her own right, and not just a 'name' associated with more widely recognised figures like Joyce and Picasso. It also draws on the impact of her relationship with Alice Toklas, and how their life and identity almost merges as one as time marches on. Part two, following Stein's death then looks at Toklas' dealing with the responsibility of ensuring Stein's work receives its due as she sees it , trying to manage the legacy, and trusting a select few individuals to draw out Stein's writing and bring it to a wider audience, one more receptive to her style than her contemporaries where whilst she was alive.

It is a deeply humane book, but one that never threatens to feel overly hagiographic towards its subjects. The ambivalence felt towards the pair by peers and critics, as well as their respective personalities are revealed to the reader subtly, warts and all. Stein's encompassing desire to be recognised, and her snobbery or dickishness towards people she didn't sufficiently respect her or give her due, and Toklas' almost dangerously obsessive seeming desire to possess Stein entirely, to ward off negative influences, cutting out bemused writers and other people for perceived slights, as well as her extreme desire to efface herself from the Stein narrative... it's all evident in the writing.

But it is compassionately done and contextualised by the challenges of being a lesbian couple when one could never actually be out about such a relationships. One wonders how their relationship, with the wider world as much as anything would have differed had they lived in more enlightened times.

[W.S. Luk · Rating 4 out of 5]

Despite my passion for modernist writers, my knowledge of Gertrude Stein was a fragmentary one: I'd read fragments of her work, and knew her by reputation from A Moveable Feast and stories of her relationships with Cezanne and Picasso. Wade's book fills that gap of knowledge helpfully, detailing not only Stein's life but also the posthumous reception of her work. Her well-paced prose shines light on Stein's literary innovations, relationship with Alice B. Toklas, and process of self-promotion as an author, as well as her controversial ties to Vichy France, with Wade arguing that while Stein did hold a "lingering affection" for Marshal Pétain, accusations of collaborationism have been overstated by modern commentators placing her on the same footing as pro-Fascist modernists like Ezra Pound. It's an enlightening look at a neglected modernist writer and the qualities that made her so compelling and controversial.

That said, I felt that the book's pace flagged a little in the latter half, which, after Stein's death, is primarily devoted to the wranglings of commentators and biographers studying Stein's papers and developing her posthumous reputation. I'd also have liked to see Wade examine slightly longer extracts of Stein's writings, as her close analysis of Stein's work primarily involves discussing brief quotations from texts like Tender Buttons, an approach which sometimes felt too cursory.

[Carol · Rating 4 out of 5]

Gertrude Stein has always been an enigma to me. This book is extremely well researched and annotated. But Gertrude Stein, even though I know much more about her life, is still a mystery to me. I know that she recognized the genius of Picasso and Hemingway. She seems to be naive when it comes to politics. Gertrude Stein said One that she was much more interested in ordinary people rather than those who were drawn to her.

She was a modernist, a person who experimented with language. I enjoyed reading about her adventures of experimenting with words, a sort of John Cage in literature rather than music. I wanted to read some of her portraits. This book is loaded with photos, but many of them were dim or faded. I do understand that she wanted to break the rules and advance literature. It was interesting to read about her partner, Alice Toklas. She was the opposite of Stein. She adored her, and although she did so much for her, Alice did not seem to think of herself. I would have loved to sit there with them, looking at the paintings, especially those done by Matisse. However, I'm not sure how well I would have done conversing with Gertrude Stein; I think I would feel judged all the time.

I felt that this book was too long. There were interesting parts that could have been made into separate books.

[ND · Rating 4 out of 5]

Having loved Square Haunting, Wade's prior book, I was very eager to read this one, and yes, it's very good, but I didn't quite love it as much as the previous work. This is a book with a very ambitious premise: to write a biography of Stein and her lover, Alice B. Toklas, that extends past both of their deaths, to Stein's posthumous influence and reception. It does get a tiny bit bogged down in minutiae in the latter sections, especially about various squabbles. Wade wisely cautions us that much remains unknowable, which is very honest, and also super frustrating for both the reader and the biographer. At times, it made me want to read Stein, and not so much, at other times. Stein is a slippery and perplexing subject, which is why we should all applaud Wade. She also did enormous, voluminous amounts of research. But might need a firmer hand in editing, in places.

[Micebyliz]

It's difficult to pin down exactly what it is that fascinates about Gertrude Stein. Perhaps that's what she wanted. She lived in a time when privacy was necessary for anyone like her. You have to wonder if there is anyone she did not know in the pantheon of artists and writers. There are so many names in this book...but what interested me the most was that after the war (II) so many GI's came to her door seeking her wisdom since they had read her books in the trenches, so to speak. How unusual if you think of what goes on nowadays. I know that in WWI, books were distributed to the soldiers from the army. Imagine that now.
I love that she was friends with Picasso.
As for Alice, i didn't really like her, but i am sure she had reasons for everything she did and she was a product of her times. It's so sad, all of it.

[Jd Caron]

King of Kings is a masterclass in narrative history gripping, incisive, and devastating in its portrayal of hubris at the highest levels of global power. Scott Anderson transforms geopolitical failure into Shakespearean tragedy, revealing how arrogance, cultural blindness, and wishful thinking brought down a monarch who believed himself untouchable and blindsided a superpower that assumed it understood the world. It’s not just a recounting of the Iranian Revolution it’s a warning flare shot across history.

[Hannah · Rating 5 out of 5]

An impeccable overview of the life, stylistic and artistic production of Gertrude Stein. In as much as it is about Gertrude, it is about Alice B. Toklas and her invisible role in Gertrude's life. The narration feels so comfortable, linking gossip from letters with literary criticism. The structure was intriguingly split between life and legacy and really solidified the writing for me. love love love

[Graham Anderson · Rating 4 out of 5]

A fantastic read, very interesting biography of a writer who divided opinion. The book creatively combines 20th century art and history with a detailed account of Stein's life, career, post-death influence and controversies. An ever present theme is the bewitching relationship Stein shared with her life partner, Alice Toklas, a strange and formidable woman with her own story to tell.

[Alice Eyre · Rating 5 out of 5]

Stupendously fun read - like all precocious twenty somethings, I’ve always loved 1920’s Paris and this paints such a vivid picture of a fascinating time.

Also sprinkled throughout with juicy tittle tattle, what a treat !!

[Cat Fithian · Rating 5 out of 5]

Combining history with biography, art literature, and the writer's psyche, this bio covers all the bases. I've learned more about the art scene in Paris in the 20th century, along with learning about Stein, her writing, and her own beliefs about life, love and writing. Really interesting!

[andie blaine · Rating 5 out of 5]

brilliant biography that sprawls like a home

[Anne Green · Rating 5 out of 5]

Stunning. A meticulously researched and impressively written biography.

[Nikki · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was wonderful, a true literary biography. We see the life and the work TOGETHER. Amazing amount of research and really well-written and caring.

[Hilarie Pozesky · Rating 3 out of 5]

I’d give this 3.5 stars if I could, but there just wasn’t as much new knowledge about Stein in it as proposed. I’ve read nearly every other biography of Stein and this just isn’t my favorite. Bummer.

[V · Rating 2 out of 5]

DNF at 37%. Didn’t enjoy it too much - maybe because I wasn’t too familiar with her contributions (besides a factoid or two)