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Gertrude Stein Remembered

Name: Gertrude Stein Remembered
Author: Linda Simon
ISBN: 9780803292482

by Linda Simon (Editor)

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Overview

Gertrude Stein Remembered, a collection of memoirs by twenty people who knew her well, adds invaluable details to our view of Stein as a writer and woman. The recollections, some previously unpublished, cover the entire span of her career: from her time as an undergraduate at Radcliffe College to her extraordinary years as a writer in Paris from 1903 through 1946. Among the memoirists are novelists Sherwood Anderson and Thornton Wilder, bookseller Sylvia Beach, Russian painter Pavel Tchelitchew, journalists T. S. Matthews, Therese Bonney, and Eric Sevareid, and photographers Carl Van Vechten and Cecil Beaton.

The composite portrait that emerges is of a complex, sometimes contradictory, always fascinating woman. Gertrude Stein Remembered is a kaleidoscopic view of Stein that perfectly suits this protean champion of modern literature and the avant-garde.

About the Author, Linda Simon

Linda Simon is director of the Writing Center at Harvard University. She is the author of Good Writing: A Guide and Sourcebook across the Curriculum; Of Virtue: Margaret Beaufort, Matriarch of the House of Tudor; and Thornton Wilder: His World.

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Editorials

New York Times Book Review

“[A] highly enjoyable collection . . . Stein emerges not just as an innovator and perhaps a genius but as a brave, funny, and hugely likable woman.”—New York Times Book Review

Publishers Weekly - Publisher's Weekly

Simon (The Biography of Alice B. Toklas) here gathers 20 memoirs of Stein (1874-1946) in a collection that will leave readers bored and agreeing with critic Carl van Vechten's sentiments: ``What is there to say for Gertrude Stein that she does not say quite adequately for herself?'' Several of the pieces, the majority of which have been previously published, are accounts of the Paris salon for artists and writers that Stein and her lover, Alice B. Toklas, conducted. Painter Franoise Gilot describes a visit to Stein's home with Pablo Picasso, where Gilot intuited that Toklas was angry at Stein's interest in her. Journalist Eric Sevareid recounts calling on Stein and Toklas in 1944, when they were hiding from the Nazis. Included also are reminiscences of Stein's classmates at Radcliffe and a tribute to her writing by Thornton Wilder. Photos not seen by PW. (Dec.)

Library Journal

Another variant of a Gertrude Stein biography, this book consists of 21 short memoirs of the modernist writer by her colleagues and contemporaries. Selections include pieces by Daniel-Henri Kahnweiler, Sylvia Beach, Sherwood Anderson, Cecil Beaton, and Eric Sevareid, who offer intimate and often informal views of Stein. She is portrayed not just as an influential avant-garde writer but also as a young student at Radcliffe, visionary art collector, hostess, friend, and photographic subject. These selections are mostly excerpted from previously published works, but it is worthwhile to have them collected, especially those that appeared in journals that are not readily available. Not essential, but recommended for humanities and art history collections.-Janice Braun, Hoover Institution Lib., Stanford, Cal.