Readings by Gertrude Stein

Gertrude Stein was born in Allegheny, Pennsylvania, on February 3, 1874, to wealthy German-Jewish immigrants. Her first book, Three Lives, was published in 1909. She followed it with Tender Buttons (Claire Marie) in 1914. Tender Buttons clearly showed the profound effect modern painting had on her writing. Among Stein’s most influential works are Stanzas in Meditation and Other Poems [1929–1933] (Books for Libraries Press, 1956); The Autobiography of Alice B.… (more)

Gertrude Stein was born in Allegheny, Pennsylvania, on February 3, 1874, to wealthy German-Jewish immigrants. Her first book, Three Lives, was published in 1909. She followed it with Tender Buttons (Claire Marie) in 1914. Tender Buttons clearly showed the profound effect modern painting had on her writing. Among Stein’s most influential works are Stanzas in Meditation and Other Poems [1929–1933] (Books for Libraries Press, 1956); The Autobiography of Alice B. Toklas (Harcourt, Brace, 1933), which was a best-seller; How to Write (Plain Edition, 1931); and The Making of Americans (Contact Editions, 1925). Sherwood Anderson, in his introduction to Stein’s Geography and Plays (Four Seas Company, 1922), wrote that her writing “consists in a rebuilding, and entire new recasting of life, in the city of words.” Stein died of cancer at the American Hospital in Neuilly-sur-Seine on July 27, 1946. (Source)

(less)