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"IT IS A RATHER CURIOUS THING..."
"It is a rather curious thing..." so begins the first lecture by Gertrude Stein in this book.It has been 75 years since these lectures were first presented by Stein at the University of Chicago, one stop on her 6-month U.S. lecture tour in 1934-35. The book is a reprint of the original from 1935.

Yet the four lectures presented here are as fresh and provocative as if they were part of a university's creative writing curriculum in the 21st century.

Stein's use of language, her humor, her strong opinions, her unwavering beliefs, and yes, even some things that don't make sense are all here in 96 pages. "Can I say it more than often enough, " she intones in one of the lectures. And in another: "That is something that is really not anything and I have found out that it is made up of anything and that anything is that one thing."

Enjoy these lectures. Read them aloud to get their full effect.

The book contains the original Introduction by Thornton Wilder who invited Stein to the university to lecture and would become a very good friend, as well as a new Foreword by scholar Liesel Olson which gives the historic background of how these lectures came about.

And though it may be "a rather curious thing," it is Gertrude Stein at her best - "can I say it more than often enough."

It is too bad, however, that for such a slim volume, the book was not published in hardcover, as was the original. ... Read more

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Revealing Gertrude Stein in a new light, a biography shows the idiosyncratic art collector and writer as a member of her German-Jewish patriarchal family, undergraduate at Radcliffe, feminist, medical student, lesbian and lover, war survivor, and in many other roles. UP. ... Read more

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"Ruddick's interpretative study of Gertrude Stein breaks new ground in both Stein studies and poststructural theory, remaining accessible while rejecting neither indeterminate polysemy nor the thematic unity of 'idea.'. . . Through valuable interpretations of the major early Stein texts ('Melanctha,' The Making of Americans, G.M.P., and Tender Buttons), Ruddick details the 'serial acts of self-definition' of the modernist self in relation to William James, Freud, and the Bible. . . . Ruddick is authoritative in dealing with Stein's work, feminist theory, and the cultural phenomenon of modernism."--Choice ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

Stein simplified
An accessible look at a writer who is fascinating but often hard to follow.

Uproariously funny, although not intentionally so.
Although the effect was no doubt unintentional, reading an academic tome which attempts to make sense out of Gertrude Stein's writing is well-nigh hilarious. If you'd be interested in reading paragraphs of explanatory material regarding the statement "Peanuts blame, a half sand is holey and nearly", this is unquestionably the book for you. ... Read more

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Perhaps the oddest and most influential collaboration in the history of American modernism was hatched in 1926, when a young Virgil Thomson knocked on Gertrude Stein's door in Paris. Eight years later, their opera Four Saints in Three Acts became a sensation--the longest-running opera in Broadway history to date and the most widely reported cultural event of its time. Prepare for Saints is Steven Watson's brilliant and absorbing account of how that revolutionary opera was born.Amazon.com Review
This crisp and accessible work offers both a penetratingreconstruction of the 1934 American productions of Gertrude Stein andVirgil Thomson's modernist opera Four Saints in Three Acts anda delightful study of an unprecedented artisticcollaboration--involving not only Stein and Thomson, but a large castof supporting characters. From arbiters of taste like Carl Van Vechtento the society hostess Mabel Dodge Luhan to the plucky, well-connectedband of Harvard-trained art professionals who eventually set "thecourse of 'official' modernist culture in America's most prestigiousinstitutions for nearly half a century," Steven Watson tracks theimprobable development of an audience for a quintessentially Americanopera that happened to be set in Spain, peopled by nuns and saints,and staged with an all-black cast performing an incoherent story infront of combustible sets. Along the way, Watson illuminates thelarger history of modernism in Paris and New York between the wars, aswell as many smaller histories, like the growth of museums in Americaand the influence of high bohemia on the worlds of fashion and design.--Regina Marler ... Read more

Customer Reviews (3)

Fascinating cultural history
I came to this book hoping to learn about the creation and production of Stein's opera, and I was not disappointed. I thought the book delivered that information, and more.Watson writes well, and he tells a fascinating story of the complicated network of interpersonal relationships that were finally led this unlikely opera into production.I think Watson understands the nature of Stein's as well as anybody, although the focus of the book was not on the way the opera was written.He manages to express the way that all the participants were inspired by Stein's words in different ways, the "miracle" of their all having "to create and all of them did."

Opera is used as a hook for a less saleable topic
This is a meandering, disappointing, misleadingly titled book. Clearly the author wanted to write a book about the Harvard modernists and their era, including exploring "Negro chic" and the homosexual culture ofthe period. This would be a harder sell as a mass-circulation book, andhence the device of recruiting FOUR SAINTS as a distillation of the worldhe is interested in.

But the result is that one does not get enough ofanything, and too much of what you didn't buy the book for. Chick Austin,Muriel Draper, and the others may have provided physical settings relevantto the gestation of FOUR SAINTS, but they did not CREATE the piece. Assuch, the lingering over their particular biographies is excessive in abook purportedly devoted to the birth of the opera. Too often we get listsof celebrities present at this gathering or another, complete with fawningdescriptions of what they were wearing and how they decorated their rooms-- but this stems from a fan's love of a period, not a chronicling of FOURSAINTS itself.

Thus while we read through elegant page after page gushingabout Mrs. Harrison Williams and Lucius Beebe, by the end we have littleidea of what went on on stage in the opera, what more than a few of thelyrics were, or how the music sounded. If it is vital for us to know howJulien Levy founded his art gallery blow by blow, why so little info onblack theatre in New York before and after FOUR SAINTS? Why spend aparagraph following up on, say, Alfred Barr after SAINTS but only briefmention of what happened to any of the SAINTS cast members? This is a bookabout art museums mispackaged as one about the theatre.

This book is abit of a cynical hoax. You can just feel the editor "shaping" abook about largely forgotten arts administrators and critics, the partiesthey went to, who they slept with, and how openly, via hanging it all on anopera which fascinates in legend because of combining a black cast withGertrude Stein's lyrics. In the end, this book is a collection ofwell-written personality sketches of pictorial artists and their patrons.The author clearly has but subsidiary interest in music or theatre -- fatalin a book purporting to be about an opera.

More gossip than information
For those who know little or nothing about the Gertrude Stein/Virgil Thompson opera "Four Saints in Three Acts," this book will provide some basic information.Those searching for any kind of in depthanalysis either of the libretto or the music will be disappointed, as Iwas.Long on the sexual preferences of the members of the 1930's modernistelite, short on any discussion of a landmark work of art.Listen to theoriginal cast album instead. ... Read more

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Gertrude
is Gertrude
is Gertrude
is Gertrude.

And Alice is Alice.

And Gertrude and Alice are Gertrude and Alice.

And you are welcome to join them for tea. But beware, for there you will find a bear in a chair, just barely scary. And here is a beard with a man attached to it. And then, of course, some words might appear, uninvited , but delighted in spite of their lightbulbs. But, but, but, but - that doesn't make any sense! Yes!

In a story inspired by the oh-so-modern groundbreaking writing of Gertrude herself, not a lot makes sense. Even so, the oh-so-popular author Jonah Winter, and the ever-so-popular illustrator Calef Brown, and the most popular poodle of all time, Basket, invite you to enter the whimsical world of Gertrude Stein and Alice B. Toklas. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (8)

Meeting Gertrude Stein

Winter, Jonah. "Gertrude is Gertrude is Gertrude is Gertrude", Calef Brown (Illustrator), Atheneum, 2009.

Meeting Gertrude Stein

Amos Lassen

When I was a graduate student years ago, I developed a love for Gertrude Stein so much so that I was possessed and went as far as to accumulate first editions of everything she wrote or was written about her. Then along came Hurricane Katrina and I lost it all. However, I have managed to keep my love for Stein intact."Gertrude is Gertrude is Gertrude" is a very clever little book that introduces us to Stein and the salon period of her life. I love the way you can do things "if you're Gertrude". We see Stein's circle of Picasso, Matisse, Hemingway and so many more as Toklas serves them tea and we eavesdrop.
The story is inspired by the way Stein wrote and we go into her world and visit for a bit.
A perfect blend of interesting, lyrical, surprising language and engaging, whimsical illustration, this picture book offers an accessible introduction to a wonderful, modern life

Not your everyday children's book -- it's intelligent, great illustrations
I'm surprised that the specs for this book state ages 9-12.

Both of my daughters, ages 2.5 and 5.5 ***love*** this book! It's one of their favorites.

It's written in very unusual style for a child's book -- apparently it's written the way Gertrude wrote.

Alice is also written a central part of her life, and I'm glad they aren't brushing her under the rug.

The illustrations are fantastic, very beautiful, and with a different palette on each page.

The text is all over the place, with font size changing to indicate emphasis, and not all lined up on a horizontal plane -- sometimes it's wavy or stacked.

Highly recommend this book for people who want to read outside the usual stack.

Encouragement to Write What You Want is the Highlight
Okay, from reading the endnote I understand that the title is an imitation of Gertrude Stein's most quoted line, "Rose is a rose is a rose is a rose."I will admit it - Gertrude Stein is someone I've heard of (how could I not as an English major?) and I think I may have read something she's written, but obviously it did not have a major impact on me or I would remember more.(Watch, I'll find a short story or something and say "OH!I do like/remember her!")

Anyways, I guess my point is that if you know nothing of Gertrude Stein this book will seem difficult and silly.On the other hand, kids love silly, so they may very well enjoy the word play that is going on in this book.Unfortunately, I was not entertained, nor did I really love the format.I do like that the illustrations are done in the spirit of Picasso's modernism, but that type of work just doesn't always work for me.I also liked the fact that we're introduced to Ernest Hemingway, Pablo Picasso, Henri Matisse and a poodle named Basket who was apparently a popular figure at Gertrude's Paris salons.

Really, I don't love this book because it's just not my thing.The upside of this book is that it is a very teachable way to talk to children about the expatriates like Stein who lived in Paris in the early 1900s.The fact that the book introduces such figures as Picasso, Matisse and Hemingway allows teachers to talk more about the art of the artists, and the writings of the writers (and no, Hemingway is not a favorite either.I once had a professor who said if you loved Hemingway you would loathe Fitzgerald, and vice versa.I fall squarely in the love Fitzgerald camp, in case you wanted to know - so no, you will most likely never read a review of Hemingway by me).

I think I have now officially written the most confusing review ever.Bottom Line: Read it for yourself first or even test it out on your child(ren).There is no reason some people won't like this book, I just don't.

The best part of the book for me is that it encourages children to write if they want to, and that they should write what they want.So if they want to write, `Red is red is red is red," then so be it.They could apparently be the next Stein!

Notes on the Cover:
The purple on Gertrude's dress really pops against the yellow background.Again, the cover really doesn't do it for me.I was intrigued with the premise of the book, but it sadly did not live up to my expectations - but then again, I'm probably missing the whole point of it as I am not an avid reader of Stein.

An intriguing story filled with fine drawings by Calef Brown
Gertrude is Gertrude and Alice is Alice and readers are invited to join them for tea. Gertrude is a queen who knows famous writers and has some improbable names for pets in this intriguing story filled with fine drawings by Calef Brown.

Gertrude is...
Winter, J.(2009).Gertrude is Gertrude is Gertrude.New York:Atheneum Books
for Young Readers.

141694088X

Gertrude is Gertrude is Gertrude is a biographical picturebook written in the style of, and about, Gertrude Stein.This is a book that needs a lot of background information to get completely.Also, because of it's prose style, a teacher will need to read this book aloud multiple times (or encourage rereading) to help students get the meaning.(Of course, there's nothing wrong with just sharing the book for enjoyment of the words and the way they flow either.It all depends on your goal for the day)

With some beautiful lines, this book would be great to accompany sharing some of Stein's writing.

The illustrations are fun and colorful and compliment the text well.They help to provide a sense of fun and play with perspective.


Activities to do with the book:

After sharing this book, a teacher could encourage students to write freely, whatever thoughts go through their heads.

There are a number of ways a teacher could use this book with larger individual or group projects.A teacher could assign research papers or presentations based on Modernism and the artists and writers of the school (including Gertrude Stein, Alice B. Toklas, Ernest Hemingway, Henri Matisse and Pablo Picasso), their art and the historic events.

While this book could be used with a number of age groups, if a teacher chooses to share it with the upper grades, at least a few students will assume the unseen narrator is on drugs and the teacher will have to challenge students to think more deeply.

Also, if any teachers out there happen to be as nerdy as me, he or she may want to try having a tea party after sharing this book by taking an hour to two to have the students go to the school library or other homey school space, dress in period clothes (maybe for extra credit) talk about literature and art of the period and maybe even read Stein's poems and others' works aloud in small groups.


Favorite Quotes:


"And now it's time for tea. Teatime is teatime. And look who's here, in time for tea."

"Pages and pages and pages with words all over the pages. My goodness, what fun. What fun to write whatever words occur."

"You see Miss Gertrude is a genius. And a genius is a genius. So what if no one understands a word she writes. Some day they might."

For more of my reviews, [...] ... Read more

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excellent big collection by foremost Stein scholar ... Read more

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A biography of the American author and art collector who was a prominent figure on the literary scene in early twentieth-century Paris. ... Read more

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Both in her lifetime and since, Gertrude Stein's persona received far more attention than her writings. The result was a distorted view of both her person and her work. This monumental two-volume set of her correspondence with Carl Van Vechten, the critic novelist, and photographer, offers new insight into Stein's life, her art, and the intellectual and artistic milieu of Paris. These letters also follow Van Vechten's various careers: particularly his championship of the Harlem Renaissance. The existing biographies of Stein, and even her own autobiographical writings, omit a great deal. While fleshed out with famous names and anecdotes, they lack the ordinary detail of what Stein called 'daily everyday living': the immediate concerns, objects, people, and places that were grist for her writing.These letters provide the detail of daily life and recover aspects of Stein's and Van Vechten's private selves as writers that are often lost in the rush to glamorize them. What is especially satisfying about this edition is its completeness.By providing both sides of this extraordinary correspondence - the longest continuous correspondence of Stein's life - our knowledge of STein's and Van Vechten's lives, their art, and their times is significantly enhanced. The letters have been transcribed to retain the characteristics of each writer's style. Readers of this volume will benefit greatly from Edward Burns' lively and exhaustive annotations, which include scrupulous cross-referencing to source materials. ... Read more

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Disjunctive Poetics examines some of the most interesting and experimental contemporary writers whose work forms a counterpoint to the mainstream writing of our time. Peter Quartermain suggests that the explosion of noncanonical modern writing is linked to the severe political, social, and economic dislocation of non-English-speaking immigrants who, bringing alternative culture with them as they passed through Ellis Island in their hundreds of thousands at the turn of the century, found themselves uprooted from their tradition and disassociated from their culture. The line of American poetry that runs from Gertrude Stein through Louis Zukofsky and the Objectivists to the Language Writers, Quartermain contends, is not the constructive but deconstructive aspect that emphasized the materiality and ambiguity of the linguistic medium and the arbitrariness and openess of the creative process. ... Read more

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Provides the first sustained reading of Gertrude Stein's novels from both feminist and postmodern perspectives.
... Read more

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Passionate Collaborations takes Gertrude Stein s life and her prose as an occasion to reflect upon the place of life or living in all of its intricate, messy, contradictory, elusive and mundane details in acts of reading and writing. By exploring through phenomenologically and psychoanalytically inflected lenses a series of documented historical, collaborative, combative, and conflictual relationships with Stein, her writings, and reputation, Passionate Collaborations lays the groundwork for a reconsideration of contemporary approaches to Stein's work, as well as other acts of reading, and the practice of criticism in general. Written increasingly in dialogue and concluding with a play, Passionate Collaborations invites its reader, too, into the space of and for a passionate collaboration, a space where writing listens to and calls for attention to the manifold variety and detail of bodily experience, living, and feeling. In its very form, the text demonstrates that serious theorizing and criticism may take place in a variety of ostensibly uncritical modes and languages; that the practices of drama or fiction are not merely the objects of critical theory, but, often enough, its very best medium. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

excellence
a tremendous acheivement that argues an original and controversial thesis at every turn. the scholarly research is truly outstanding.her grasp of the critical literature across a number of fields of intellectual inquiry is thorough exacting and always subtle. an extraordinary book.complete intimacy with its subject. ... Read more

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Gertrude Stein in Dayton & Other Plays is the 2nd collection of plays by Louis Phillips, published by World Audience. This collection is an excellent, eclectic mix of plays by accomplished and award-winning playwright, who has been produced in New York City and regional theater. The plays are poignant and humorous, powerful and articulate. A must buy! ... Read more

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Customer Reviews (3)

Insight into the relationship between two remarkable people
How wonderful to read about the emotions of what is sometimes considered to be "deviant" love.I believe they would each be honored to know that their true relationship is public and, for the most part, thatpeople are touched by their genuine caring for each other.I highlyrecommend this book, especially for those people who find it hard tounderstand relationships between same-sex couples.

Brilliant!
What a hoot!Kay Turner has done it again, producing a book that's both entertaining and eye-opening -- a delightful-as-usual combination of the scholarly and hilarious. Brava! A wonderful gift for and/or from yergirlfriend.

Gertrude and Alice Get Real!
Just imagine having your love notes found, analyzed and published for the world to see? Well, this is it. One of the world's most famous and iconic couples' lyrical notes to each other are here for all to share. Should ithave been done? Some may say 'no', but considering the fact that they areby Stein, one of the most well-known, unread writers in history, andToklas, whose place in history largely hinges on her hashish fudge, I'd say'why not?' These ladies have long been used to public curiosity andscrutiny and became household names during their 1934-35 visit to the US.The introductory essay alone, though scholarly, is worth the price ofadmission---"Having a cow" will take on a whole new meaning inyour vocabulary! ... Read more

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"Rose is a rose is a rose"

Among the most influential writers of her time, Gertrude Stein created poetryand prose so radically experimental that her work stood out even in an eracharacterized by unconventional sentiments. Stein's avant-garde approachto writing ignored the traditional confinements of grammar and structureand focused instead on sound, rhythm and texture, and the results were asrevolutionary and mesmerizingly brilliant as the post-impressionist paintingsof her friends Picasso and Matisse.

This sampling of Stein's work, selected and read by the author herself,represents a unique opportunity to experience first-hand all the power,resonance, and astounding creativity of one of the twentieth century's mostimportant and memorable artists.

Born in Pennsylvania in 1874, Gertrude Stein attended Radcliffe Collegewhere she studied psychology under the great William James. After leavingAmerica, Stein finally settled in Paris where she began experimenting withwriting techniques and before long became an important literary figure inthe flourishing Parisian art world of the day. Gertrude Stein also helpedlaunch the careers of other artistic giants and influenced and entertainedthe likes of Hemingway, Pound and Fitzgerald in her famous Paris salon.Gertrude Stein died in Neuilly-sur-Seine in 1946.


CONTAINS:

• The Making of Americans: Parts 1 & 2
• A Valentine to Sherwood Anderson
• If I Told Him: A Completed Portrait of Picasso/Matisse
• Madame Recamier: An Opera

Customer Reviews (4)

Gertrude, briefly
Briefly, Gertrude, briefly and succinctly, succinctly is as it was and it was as it was remembered. A golden voice, an only voice a voice is as separate as a letter not sent, a letter not sent, not written not not sent not not delivered. A voice to stop stars, stars as they shine, shine shineas is as it was remembered stars as wars not remembered not remembered toopainfully, not rememebered as succinctly as briefly as this tape is. Awinner in brief, brief as a winner a golden winnner with a voice to stopstars. Miss Stein the secret is still with you.

Of coarse it's worth it.
Gertrude Stein's work is meant to be read. She accomplished the same ends with words as did the cubists with paint.Her work defies linear syntax and conventional gramerical boundaries.She takes an object and strips alltraces of reality from that object and presents it so that only the idea ofthat object remains. And it is the idea that Stein considered the mostimportant. Her writing is frustrating at first and this audio casset makesStein more accessible.You get a feel for the flow of her poetry.Therhyme and timbre that is elusive on the page is brought to life.Althoughthis selection is short and doesn't give a hint as to when or where orunder what circumstances it was recorded it still provides the reader withthe essence of Stein.

Essence of Stein
While this tape is, as already observed, a brief selection of Stein's reading, it is essential to anyone who loves, or would like to learn to love, her work.The cadences and intonations of her readings revealeverything we need to know about her purposes and methods as a writer; eventhemost hermetic and arcane of her work becomes"readable" ifher voice is present as one reads. This is not merely a precious historical document, but the perfect gateway to the treasures of Stein.

Terrible
As the famous review of Anthony Adverse went, similarly goes my review ofthis tedious little tape:"A Huge Mountain of Trash".It,however, is only huge in its trashiness, not in size or content.Perhapsmy review of this would be more accurate as:"A small pile ofgibberish." ... Read more

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Letters to Steward from the famous expatriate pair, dating from the 1930s through 1966, reflect a true friendship amongthe correspondents, the striking personalities of Stein andToklas, and their life in Paris. ... Read more