Geographical History of America

by Gertrude Stein

First published in 1936 and long out of print, The Geographical History of America brings together prose pieces, dialogues, philosophical meditations, and playlets by one of the century's most influential experimental writers. This short but brilliant book offers a dimension of Gertrude Stein's thinking not available elsewhere. Here Stein sets forth her view of the human what it is, how it works, and how it is different from - and more interesting than - human nature.
Geographical History also elaborates on Stein's concepts of identity, landscape, presence, and composition. Today, as literary discourse pays more attention to textuality, to voice, reader-response, and phenomenology, Stein emerges as a pioneering modernist to whom the century is slowly catching up. For those in the performing arts, Geographical History further addresses the notion of play as landscape, one of Stein's most influential theatrical ideas, as well as such issues as dialogue, character, and dramatic structure - in a book that is itself a model of modern experimentation.

Genres: Poetry, Classics, Literature, American

240 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1974

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

[Theo · Rating 3 out of 5]

No matter how much I read Stein, I never seem to get used to her style. Every time I wade into the depths of her books, I feel unsteady and uncertain - nervous. There may be no right way to read A Geographical History of America, or any other Stein novel, but I constantly feel that I’m doing it wrong. And I think that’s partially the point of Stein’s work. Language, like many things, is ever-changing and unsteady. It can be manipulated and played with. Like Stein says, “how slowly nervousness is everything” (393). And how slowly Stein makes nervousness everything. Stein capitalizes on the things we can’t control and the things that make us uncertain. She emphasizes the things we are most nervous about (understanding, perception, definition, stability) and flips them on their head to create a new, uncomfortable, unsteady understanding.

I'm not a Stein scholar by any means. When I have to read Stein, I whine about it and fall asleep halfway through and become entirely too frustrated. But the language Stein creates to examine identity, gender, sexuality, or whathaveyou...it knocks the breath out of me.

[Anthony · Rating 4 out of 5]

when i first read this book i was younger and my favorite sentence in it was "I am I because my little dog knows me." rereading, now that i am older and irreversibly more american my favorite sentence is "Oh say can you see." i am never astonished because i always expect to see a pigeon in every place at all times. americans are like that.

[Illiterate · Rating 1 out of 5]

Stein’s rhythmic prose may be interesting, but her ideas are often inane and always lacking argument.

[Keleigh · Rating 5 out of 5]

Everything you need to know.

[Mina · Rating 5 out of 5]

Insane incredible read you have to read this

[Luther Case · Rating 4 out of 5]

Really quite confusing I think I have to reread and like take notes. Very enjoyable experience makes you think interesting thoughts and question a lot of things but I'm not sure if I agree with a lot of it but then again I think she may have designed it that way to mess with you and make you think for yourself. I do agree with I am I because my little dog knows me.

[Will · Rating 4 out of 5]

The introduction by William Gass is remarkable if only for this great one-liner: "What's the point of being born in Oak Park if you're going to kill yourself in Ketchum?" (i.e. Hemingway). The best of the rest of the book is the rest of the book, and the rest of the best of the book is better than the best of the rest of books.