Gertrude Stein

by Lucy Daniel

“You are, of course, never yourself,” wrote Gertrude Stein (1874–1946) in Everybody’s Autobiography .  Modernist icon Stein wrote many pseudo-autobiographies, including the well-known story of her lover, The Autobiography of Alice B. Toklas ; but in Lucy Daniel’s Gertrude Stein the pen is turned directly on Stein, revealing the many selves that composed her inspiring and captivating life. Though American-born, Stein has been celebrated in many incarnations as the embodiment of French bohemia; she was a patron of modern art and writing, a gay icon, the coiner of the term “Lost Generation,” and the hostess of one of the most famous artistic salons. Welcomed into Stein’s art-covered living room were the likes of Picasso, Matisse, Hemingway, and Pound. But—perhaps because of the celebrated names who made up her social circle—Stein has remained one of the most recognizable and yet least-known of the twentieth-century’s major literary figures, despite her immense and varied body of work. With detailed reference to her writings, Stein’s own collected anecdotes, and even the many portraits painted of her, Lucy Daniel discusses how the legend of Gertrude Stein was created, both by herself and her admirers, and gives much-needed attention to the continuing significance and influence of Stein’s literary works. A fresh and readable biography of one of the major Modernist writers, Gertrude Stein will appeal to a wide audience interested in Stein’s contributions to avant-garde writing, and twentieth century art and literature in general.

192 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2009

Reviews

[David · Rating 4 out of 5]

I have read quite a few biographies of GS by now, but how could I pass up one that was remaindered at $5.98? The answer was obvious: I could not. One in a series called "Critical Lives" (several other books in the series will be added to my 'to-read' list shortly), it looked promising. At first, I worried that it might be too critical for my taste, but in the end, I thought it was very good. The series is published in the UK, which may account for the author's style, which is refreshingly judgmental, no pussyfooting around. Not that I agree with all the judgments pronounced here, mind you, but on the whole I am glad I read this book. So, if you are as obsessed with GS as I am, you might give it a read. Alternatively, if you wonder what all the fuss is about, this might provide a good answer. Or you can just read GS herself, of course. Perhaps my favorite book about her is Judy Grahn's "Really Reading Gertrude Stein: A selected anthology." Grahn's essays are brilliant, and she provides her own selection of readings from GS to accompany them, so you don't have go to hunting for them. But I digress...the final point here is that if you are neither obsessed with nor curious about Gertrude Stein, here's one book you won't need to read.

[Grady Ormsby · Rating 4 out of 5]

Gertrude Stein is famous for being, among other things, a collector of modern art, a guiding light of Modernism and the most important experimental writer of the Twentieth Century. But most of all she is noted for being the Grande Dame of the Paris salon scene in the first four decades of the century and the heart of “The Lost Generation.” (Ernest Hemingway credits the phrase to Stein, who was then his mentor and patron.) Gertrude Stein by Lucy Daniel is an interesting and well-researched biography.
Gertrude was born in Philadelphia in 1874. Her early childhood was spent in Vienna and Paris. Eventually the family settled in Oakland, California. At age 14, after her mother died, she went to Baltimore to live with her mother’s family. Her formal education began at Radcliffe, which then functioned as a female coordinate institution for the all-male Harvard College. She studied psychology and had a particular interest in the psychology and definition of character. She next enrolled in Johns Hopkins School of Medicine. It was during this period that she began to write. Her excitement about writing caused her interest in medicine to wane and she dropped out with only a few courses to go.
In 1903 she moved to Paris with her brother Leo. She stayed for more than thirty years. It was here at 427 Rue de Fleures that their art collection was displayed and here that the Saturday night salon gatherings began. The list of attendees is long but some of the most famous were Pablo Picasso, Ernest Hemingway, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Sinclair Lewis, Ezra Pound, Henri Matisse, Thornton Wilder and Sherwood Anderson. It was here that conversation was elevated to an art form. It was also here that snobbery and favoritism could be part reputation-making and reputation-breaking. During the third decade of the century there was a waning of the importance of the salon if not its notoriety. The golden age was gone and Stein’s salon was becoming a kind of tourist attraction continuing to attract lots of people, mostly American, but with diminishing influence.
Stein’s earliest writing of note was The Making of Americans Being the History of a Family’s Progress (1902–1911). She called it “the long book. It is a compendium of items from her notebooks, more than half a million words long, full of her experimentation including her ideas about the psychology of character and abstract portraits. Her “painting with words” was called unreadable by some critics. It led to a proliferation of parodies some of which were read by more people than the original writing. Her literary style is remarkable in that it is almost impossible to categorize. She is definitely Modernist but has also been labeled as Futurist, Dadaist, Fauvist, Orphist, Vorticist and Imagist.
The Autobiography of Alice B. Toklas is Stein’s most familiar work. Most people found that it could be read and it had a tremendous impact though Stein, and, indeed, Toklas, felt it was greatly misunderstood and misinterpreted.
She returned to America in 1934-35 to a storm of celebrity and publicity. Gertrude and Alice lived out World War II in Neuilly-sur-Seine after fleeing Paris from the Nazis. Her right-leaning politics caused some to accuse her of Vichy collaboration.
After the war Gertrude and Alice returned to Paris. Gertrude continued to write until her death in 1946. Alice B. Toklas followed her in death 20 years later. In her lifetime she created novels, biographies, poems, essays and plays along with a vast collection of notes. In her struggle for ethnic, sexual, racial, and cultural identity perhaps her greatest creation was her own persona. Her legacy and influence are undoubtable.
Read a book. Pick out a biography. Share the magic and adventure of an exceptional life.

[Mica Amy Phelan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Although really just a simple biography, the legend of Stein herself makes this book interesting. I thoroughly enjoyed this book, more than I was expecting, and an very glad I read it.

[Đoàn Duy · Rating 4 out of 5]

Gertrude Stein wouldn’t be unfamilliar to anyone who has some liking to literature generally. She was a cult figure in the literary modernism in the early 20th century, no doubt. What makes her so prominent, so eccentric, and so charming concomitantly is her seemingly paradoxical attributes within her expressed in her character and her writing style. All of that is portrayed vividly in this short biography which leads us chronologically into Gertrude Stein’s life, not in detailed, but concisely. Miss Stein’s character is quite appealing, even though it is told summarily through a book, via some anecdotes of hers, and her writing style is somewhat mind-blowing even thought it’s mentioned just in its rough surface.

Right in her early years of life, her self-boasted personality which would be her currency later in literary circles already came to the fore, claiming, in her early teens, that she was afraid of having no decent books to read as she would reached 15. Yet, in spite of always making herself outstanding among people, especially among male figures in order to dominate or overwhelm them by her witty remarks, paradoxically enough, Miss Stein almost inclined to elude the use of her own voice in works, masquerading as someone else to convey her ideas, her thoughts.

In addition to her title of self-proclaimed genius which seems to be presumptuous, the talent of rthetoric expressed in her playful retorts and her charming communication is another eminent aspect of her personality. One of the most well-known anecdotes about her, which strikes me fancy the most, is when she and her girlfriend came back to New York in 1934, and faced a slew of questions by journalists, Miss Stein had a sharp-witted reply to a seemingly-wanting-to-tease-her question:

“Why don’t you write the way you talk?”, asked the journalist.
“Why don’t you read the way I write?”, replied Miss Stein.

It’s classic! Typical of Stein’s manner of doing things. And I also read another saying of hers in another book that 12 years later, in 1946, she borrowed Picasso’s voice to speak out her ways of creation: “Picasso said that no one is capable of understanding you who is not capable of doing the same work himself”. On the surface, these two speakings-in-riddle seem to elevate herself above the rank of popular understanding. Yet, if we know of her tendency toward social life, we will be certain that this interpretation is apparently misleading. She always admitted that the intellectual and highbrows didn’t take her fancy, and she chose to “align herself with the middle class”. Perhaps all Miss Stein wanted to express is that readers themselves had to strive to take part in literary works, not only always expected to be offered meanings by authors. In her whole life, Miss Stein resisted against the authoritarian status of her male counterparts at any cost, even by insulting and degrading some colossal figures, such as Ezra Pound or James Joyce.

This thin book is informative enough for an overall picture of Gertrude Stein, perhaps one of the most eccentric literary figures, in seemingly the most tumultuous period of the literary world in the 20th century. Enough to see her “as part of a lineage of women writers providing an alternative to the masculine literary culture in which she worked”.

[Victoria Sadler · Rating 4 out of 5]

A really good overview of this fascinating, complicated woman that balances analysis of her work with details of her (very public) private life. Recommended for those who know very little. Informative and interesting.

[Joyce · Rating 3 out of 5]

I found that I began to like Gertrude Stein less and less until the very end.
Gertrude Stein is Gertrude Stein is Gertrude Stein is Gertrude Stein.

[Joey Gamble · Rating 3 out of 5]

Scattered, but still invigorating.