How I Read Gertrude Stein

by Lew Welch

Book by Welch, Lew

Genres: Poetry, Essays

130 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1995

About the author

Lewis Barrett Welch, Jr. is an American poet associated with the Beat generation of poets, artists, and iconoclasts.

According to Aram Saroyan who wrote Genesis Angels: The Saga of Lew Welch and the Beat Generation, Welch decided to become a writer after reading Gertrude Stein's long story "Melanctha." Welch published and performed widely during the 1960s, and taught a poetry workshop as part of the University of California Extension in San Francisco from 1965 to 1970.

On May 23, 1971, he walked out of poet Gary Snyder's house in the mountains of California, carrying his 30-30 rifle and leaving behind a suicide note. His body was never found.

Reviews

[Drew · Rating 5 out of 5]

The first time I read "The Autobiography of Alice B. Toklas," I got caught up in the author's own joy in her own writing, in her own being. That pleasure -- both hers and mine -- ended up extending to her other writing too: her plays, her essays, her novels, her other memoirs. Over the years, Stein has truly provided me with a lifetime of enjoyment! And so, poet Lew Welch's enthusiastic and intelligent analysis of Stein's writing -- specifically, her output from 1904-1912 (more specifically, "Three Lives," "The Making of Americans," "How to Write" and "Tender Buttons") -- is very much to my liking. For what Stein does, as Welch deftly points out, is write in a way that sometimes invites you into process and sometimes invites you into consciousness. Having read too many critiques that simply didn't get the brilliance of "The Making of Americans," that insisted on trivializing her use of repetition, that attacked her character because "how dare she," Welch's unabashed adoration of Stein's mind and her accomplishments is nothing short of refreshing. That he wrote this book as an undergraduate thesis paper just goes to show how insight can come at any age.