GERTRUDE STEIN AND THE MAKING OF LITERATURE Also by Shirley Neuman GERTRUDE STEIN: Autobiography and the Problem of Narration SOME ONE MYTH: Yeats's Autobiographical Prose LABYRINTHS OF VOICE: Conversations with Robert Kroetsch (with Robert Wilson) A MAZING SPACE: Writing Canadian Women Writing (co-editor, with Smaro Kamboureli) Also by Ira B. Nadel VICTORIAN ARTISTS AND THE CITY (co-editor) JEWISH WRITERS OF NORTH AMERICA VICTORIAN NOVELISTS BEFORE 1885; VICTORIAN NOVELISTS AFTER 1885 (co-editor) BIOGRAPHY: Fiction, Fact and Form THE VICTORIAN MUSE (co-editor) Gertrude Stein and the Making of Literature Edited by SHIRLEY NEUMAN Professor of English University of Alberta and IRA B. NADEL Professor of English University of British Columbia M MACMILLAN PRESS Introduction © Shirley Neuman and Ira B. Nadel 1988; Chapter 1 © Charles Caramello 1988; Chapter 2 ©Marianne DeKoven 1988; Chapter 3 ©Henry M. Sayre 1988; Chapter 4 © Ulla E. Dydo 1988; Chapter 5 ©Marjorie Perloff 1988; Chapter 6 © Ira B. Nadel1988; Chapter 7 ©Stephen Scobie 1988; Chapter 8 ©Susan E. Hawkins 1988; Chapter 9 ©Neil Schmitz 1988; Chapter 10 ©Alan R. Knight 1988; Chapter 11 ©Shirley Neuman 1988; Chapter 12 © bpNichol 1988; Chapter 13 ©Robert K. Martin 1988; Chapter 14 ©the Estate of Gertrude Stein except for editorial matter© Shirley Neuman 1988. Softcover reprint ofthe hardcover 1st edition 1988 978-0-333-40832-2 All rights reserved. No reproduction, copy or transmission of this publication may be made without written permission. No paragraph of this publication may be reproduced, copied or transmitted save with written permission or in accordance with the provisions of the Copyright Act 1956 (as amended). Any person who does any unauthorised act in relation to this publication may be liable to criminal prosecution and civil claims for damages. First published 1988 Published by THE MACMILLAN PRESS LTD Houndmills, Basingstoke, Hampshire RG21 2XS and London Companies and representatives throughout the world Typeset by Wessex Typesetters (Division of The Eastern Press Ltd) Frome, Somerset British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data Gertrude Stein and the making of literature. 1. Stein, Gertrude-Criticism and interpretation I. Neuman, Shirley II. Nadel, Ira Bruce 818' .5209 PS3537.T323Z/ ISBN 978-1-349-08543-9 ISBN 978-1-349-08541-5 (eBook) DOI 10.1007/978-1-349-08541-5 Contents List of Plates vii Acknowledgements viii List of Abbreviations X Notes on the Contributors xiii Introduction xvii Shirley Neuman and Ira B. Nadel 1 Gertrude Stein as Exemplary Theorist 1 Charles Caramello 2 Gertrude Stein and the Modernist Canon 8 Marianne DeKoven 3 The Artist's Model: American Art and the Question of Looking like Gertrude Stein 21 Henry M. Sayre 4 Gertrude Stein: Composition as Meditation 42 Ulla E. Dydo 5 (lm)Personating Gertrude Stein 61 Marjorie Perloff 6 Gertrude Stein and Henry James 81 Ira B. Nadel 7 The Allure of Multiplicity: Metaphor and Metonymy in Cubism and Gertrude Stein 98 Stephen Scobie 8 Sneak Previews: Gertrude Stein's Syntax in Tender Buttons 119 Susan E. Hawkins v vi Contents 9 The Difference of her Likeness: Gertrude Stein's Stanzas in Meditation 124 Neil Schmitz 10 Masterpieces, Manifestoes and the Business of Living: Gertrude Stein Lecturing 150 Alan R. Knight 11 'Would a viper have stung her if she had only had one name?': Doctor Faustus Lights the Lights 168 Shirley Neuman 12 When the Time Came 194 bpNichol 13 The Mother of Us All and American History 210 Robert K. Martin 14 Three by Gertrude Stein 223 Edited by Shirley Neuman Realism in Novels 223 American Language and Literature 226 A Poem about the end of the war 232 Index 237 List of Plates 1 Pablo Picasso, Gertrude Stein 2 Charles Demuth, Poster Portrait: Love, Love, Love (Homage to Gertrude Stein) 3 Pablo Picasso, Nude 4 Juan Gris, Roses 5 Robert Rauschenberg, Centennial Certificate, MMA 6 Marie Laurencin, Group d'artistes 7 Henri Rousseau, La Muse inspirant le poete vii Acknowledgements One of the pleasantest moments in the preparation of Gertrude Stein and the Making of Literature is this one, in which the editors can at last acknowledge the personal and professional kindnesses from friends, colleagues and scholarly organisations that helped make it possible. Chief among these we want to thank Dr David Schoonover and his staff at the Collection of American Literature, the Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library, for their unfailing and friendly helpfulness to Shirley Neuman in her research there. This and other research on Stein was funded by a Research Time Release grant to Shirley Neuman from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada, which has been invaluable to the project, and by a Central Research Fund grant from the University of Alberta. Professor Karen Rowe, Director of the Center for the Study of Women, University of California at Los Angeles, most generously provided us with information about essays from the UCLA Conference 'Considering Gertrude Stein: The Importance of her Writing and her Influence on Literature and Art', sponsored by the UCLA Extension Program, the UCLA Research Library, and the UCLA Center for the Study of Women and organised by herself and by Professor Martha Banta and Jim Hartzell. We also gladly thank Jorge Frascara for turning his professional talents to designing a cover that is both meaningful and attractive for this volume, and Cameron Laux for volunteering to compile the index. The editors and the authors of essays in this volume also wish to make grateful acknowledgement to the following: DavidS. Lake Publishers, Belmont, California (formerly Pitman Publishing), for permission to quote from Gertrude Stein, What are Masterpieces, copyright 1970. The Estate of Gertrude Stein for permission to quote from Gertrude Stein, Last Operas and Plays, ed. Carl Van Vechten (New York: Random House, 1949). Random House Inc., for permission to quote from Gertrude Stein, Ida A Novel (New York: Random House, copyright 1941 by Random House, Inc.). Random House, and the Estate of Gertrude Stein for permission Vlll Acknowledgements ix to quote from Gertrude Stein, The Autobiography of Alice B. Toklas (New York: Harcourt Brace, copyright Harcourt Brace and Company, 1933); from Gertrude Stein, Everybody's Autobiography (New York: Random House, copyright 1937 by Random House, Inc.); and from Gertrude Stein, Lectures in America (New York: Random House, copyright 1935 by the Modern Library, Inc.). Yale University Press for permission to quote from Gertrude Stein, Four in America (New Haven: Yale University Press, copyright 1947 by Alice B. Toklas). The Estate of Gertrude Stein and the Collection of American Literature, the Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library, Yale University, for permission to quote from the following Gertrude Stein manuscripts: early notebooks for The Making of Americans; manuscript notebook of the play The Five Georges; manuscript notebook of ·Stanzas in Meditation; manuscript notebooks of Ida; manuscript of 'Arthur and Jenny'; typescript of 'Portrait of Daisy'; manuscript notebook and scenarios of Doctor Faustus Lights the Lights; manuscript fragments pertaining to Ida and Doctor Faustus Lights the Lights. The Estate of Gertrude Stein and the Collection of American Literature, the Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library, Yale University, for permission to publish the following pieces by Gertrude Stein: 'American Language and Literature', 'A Poem about the end of the war', 'Realism in Novels'; and for permission to quote from the following letters: letter from Louis Solomons to Gertrude Stein, 27 February 1898; letter draft from Gertrude Stein to Bernard Fay, n.d.; letter from Emily Dawson to Gertrude Stein, 27 December 1908; letter from Gertrude Stein to Robert Haas, 17 May 1937; letter from Gertrude Stein to Thornton Wilder, 8 December 1937; letter from Gertrude Stein to Thornton Wilder, 11 May 1938. The Estate of Gertrude Stein, the Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library, Yale University, Virgil Thomson, and the Yale Music Library Archives, Yale University, for permission to quote manuscript materials from the Gertrude Stein and the Virgil Thomson collections. The Estate of Carl Van Vechten, Joseph Solomon, Executor, and the Collection of American Literature, the Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library, Yale University, for permission to reproduce the photograph of Gertrude Stein by Carl Van Vechten which is used on the cover of this volume. List of Abbreviations In this collection, references to the following works by Stein or to collections of her writings are identified by abbreviations in the text and notes. First editions of Stein's works are used except where later editions are both as accurate and more accessible than first editions. Where some other edition than the first is used, the first date given is that of original publication. ABT The Autobiography of Alice B. Toklas (New York: Harcourt Brace, 1933). AWD An Acquaintance with Description (London: Seizin Press, 1929). B&W Brewsie and Willie (New York: Random House, 1946). BTV Bee Time Vine and Other Pieces [1913-1927 ], vol. III of the Yale Edition of the Unpublished Writings of Gertrude Stein (New Haven, Conn.: Yale University Press, 1953; repr. New York: Books for Libraries Press, 1969). CE Composition as Explanation (London: Hogarth Press, 1926). DF Doctor Faustus Lights the Lights, in Gertrude Stein, Last Operas and Plays, ed. with an introduction by Carl Van Vechten (New York: Random House, 1949; repr. New York: Vintage Books, 1975) pp. 89-118. EA Everybody's Autobiography (New York: Random House, 1937; repr. New York: Cooper Square, 1971; repr. with index added, New York: Vintage Books, 1973). FIA Four in America (New Haven, Conn.: Yale University Press, 1947). G&P Geography and Plays (Boston, Mass.: Four Seas Company, 1922; facsimile, New York: Something Else Press, 1968). GHA The Geographical History of America or the Relation of Human Nature to the Human Mind (New York: Random House, 1936; repr.