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Isle of Lesbos : Poetry : Historical : Gertrude Stein

Gertrude Stein
1874-1946

Gertude Stein was born in Pennsylvania to Jewish-Bavarian parents.She was educated briefly in Europe and then at Radcliffe. She studied psychology under William James, and his influence runs through her work. Her life in Paris motivated much of her experimental writing. Cezanne's and Matisse's painting inspired the composition of her early Three Lives (1909) while Picasso's cubism informs her astonishing prose-poem Tender Buttons (1914). Her novel Q.E.D. (1903) published posthumously as Things as They Are) explores the jealousies and desires bewteen three young women. The Autobiography of Alice B. Toklas (1932) records her relationship with Alice.

Biography by Alix North

Selected Work

21

from Before the Flowers of Friendship Faded Faded

I love my love with a v
Because it is like that
I love my love with a b
Because I am beside that
A king.
I love my love with an a
Because she is a queen
I love my love and a a is the best of them
Think well and be a king,
Think more and think again
I love my love with a dress and a hat
I love my love and not with this or with that
I love my love with a y because she is my bride
I love her with a d because she is my love beside
Thank you for being there
Nobody has to care
Thank you for being here
Because you are not there.

And with and without me which is and without she she can be late and then and how and all around we think and found that it is time to cry she and I.

Where to Read More...

• Biography of Gertrude Stein from A Different Light bookstore.
• Gertrude Stein Online--many resources for Gertrude Stein fans.
• Grand Inspiritors: Gertrude Stein--a number of well-annotated links to sites on Gertrude
• Gertrude Stein (a series of pages discussing Gertrude Stein)
• Gertrude Stein, Tender Buttons: Objects, Food, Rooms (1914)
• Gertruide Stein, Gertrude Stein: Writings 1903-1932, Harriet Chessman, Catharine Stimpson, editors (Library of America, 1998)
• Gertruide Stein, Gertrude Stein: Writings 1932-1946, Harriet Chessman, Catharine Stimpson, editors (Library of America, 1998)
• Mabel Dodge Luhan, Gertrude Stein, A History of Having a Great Many Times Not Continued to Be Friends: The Correspondence Between Mabel Dodge and Gertrude Stein, 1911-1996 Patricia R. Everett, editor (University of New Mexico Press, 1996)